


Luftschloss

by pandatowrites



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Drug Use, Eren is a sweetheart like always, Fluff, He can still kick ass tho, Levi's got cute glasses and freckles, M/M, They all are pretty much we heart it aesthetic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2018-11-30 00:22:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11452131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pandatowrites/pseuds/pandatowrites
Summary: Levi had accepted his fate: Dying without his soulmate, being a failure in the eyes of society, and never visiting the star he was made of.At least, that's what he thought. His world changes almost entirely after meeting the brunet boy from the country.»Not all those who wander are lost.« - Tolkien





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FloofyJoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FloofyJoon/gifts).



> I dedicate this work to Sophia, as she's an inspirational and amazing writer, as well as an adorable, precious girl. Thank you.
> 
> There will be errors, such as misspelling, wrong grammar, false expressions, and comma errors; My English isn't perfect because I'm German, but I hope it's endurable. (And I translated this stuff mostly at night, which will explain a lot, sorry not sorry)
> 
> Enjoy.

A long time ago a human being stood up at night, drove to his labor, and observed the stars above him.

He witnessed a faraway supernova and got a flash of genius.

The human being took notes like he always did and found the connection between the cosmic and earthly life.

With a group of other human beings he studied everything that made his theory about life great and powerful.

And at some point he finally figured out why human beings had soulmates.

They were from the same star. They were made of the same stardust.

But why did their forearm show the time left until the very moment they meet their soulmate?

Nobody knew. And even now it's a lot of scientist's priority to find out.

Some believed the whole soulmate story was destiny. Others thought it was nonsense.

Some said it was the cosmos or nature itself - or even a god - that created an ideal of humanity, but those attempts to give an explaination didn't answer the question which wasn't to be answered.  
And then some people brought up even more questions.

Why did some people's › _timer_ ‹ stop?  
Why was fate so cruel to them?

Why would some never meet their soulmate although their _timer_ ended?

Society called those people › _defects_ ‹, because they were failures.

Nobody wanted _defects_.  
A few parents gave their children away. Other families moved because their child was a victim of severe bullying.

But _defects_ , who dared to be in a relationship with not-defects - while they had never met their soulmate or already lost them -, were looked upon as disgusting beings.  
To society, they were disturbing the peace of the stars.

Their love wouldn't last long though, because once two soulmates meet, they fall in love and want to spend the rest of their life with one another.

However, there was one couple whose love was legendary.

Since the shining hour of humanity.

 

-x-

 

Levi sat on the small, wooden stairs of the old porch, placed the filter of the lit cigarette between his lips, and let the with tobacco polluted air fill his lungs.  
He needed one now because his heart was racing; his nervousness climbed up the ladder to infinity, getting bigger, while he did or will mix with people.

Over the years, Levi learned how to conceal it so nobody could sense his fear of make contact with unknown people or people - especially a dozen of people at one spot - in general.  
Although this party wouldn't force him to see a lot of new faces, there were more than six people, including him & Isabel's mother, who would fortunately only be there for a short amount of time.

He only knew Isabel and Farlan, they were his best friends right next to Jean and Hanji.  
Well, the four were his only friends, but that's one reason more why they were his best friends.

Levi inhaled the smoke again, pulled the sleeves of Farlan's sweatshirt over the back of hands to hide the with clean, black numbers decorated forearm, and pushed the golden framed glasses up on the back of his nose.

He didn't want to see the numbers; they took him every hope of a good ending for himself.  
He hated the society which looked upon him.  
›You're already 19 and you still haven't found your true love? Are you even trying?‹

There were people who could manipulate their ›timer‹.  
But the majority was bound to destiny.

Farlan sat beside Levi, drank a slug of his beer, and enjoyed the cool puff of wind this late summer brought to them on his skin.  
»The stars are shining bright tonight«, he said and looked at his arm.  
00:01:27:09:14:26  
00:01:27:09:14:25  
00:01:27:09:14:24

Isabel pushed the two boys apart to create some space and gave each of them a sandwich while sitting down.  
She made Levi's without bacon because of his new lifestyle: Vegetarianism.  
»I sure hope they are pleasing your taste receptors. Mom doesn't have fresher salad«, she said before pulling her dress over her bottom and leaning onto Farlan.  
»Nah, it's our fault. We should've eaten with ya for lunch«, Farlan mumbled, gave Isabel his bottle, and took a bite of the sandwich.  
Levi stubbed out his cigarette with is shoe, chewed on a piece whereby his cheeks grew a bit, making him look cuter and letting his freckles shine.

Isabel leaned back, stretching her upper body to reach for her small, transportable CD-player, and put it on. »Now, boys, lemme see which songs you thought were important enough to be categorized under ›[Good Music 4 Bad Days](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA-RhWM0ufmfYhjONoTEdJWzU6aNq29s1)‹.«

As she pushed the button with her tender finger the calming melody of a guitar sounded, fitting the atmosphere perfectly.  
The sun had already disappeared behind the roofs of the single-family houses of Maple Street and met the sky close to the horizon in shades of yellow and orange, but the heaven's tent above the three friends was already coloured the most beautiful shades of blue.

» _Die Stühle liegen sehr eng /_  
_Wir reden die ganze Naht lang /_  
_Dieser niedrige Raum ist nicht schlecht /_  
_Wir können uns gut verstehen_ «

Isabel was resting in a half-lying position, holding Farlan's beer and mumbling along the lyrics of [_their_ song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lgwi_DULnpc&t=9s).  
»It's always so...«, she sang, the song connecting the three of them in a special way.  
»It indeed is always like this«, Levi whispered, had eaten half of the sandwich and sighed as he remembered something. »Why did you invite the new ones in the first place?«

»They're from the country. We're lost suburban kids, Levi.« Farlan took his beer from Isabel after letting her drink a bit, just a little bit, and finishing his supper. »They don't know the true meaning of life.«  
Isabel nodded agreeing with him, hummed quietly to the music and hugged her ›Big Bro‹ as a sign of friendly affection. »You're gonna like them! Besides, Eren is my cousin. He sure will be like me, absolutely!« She closed her big, green eyes, inhaled Farlan's scent from the sweatshirt and stared into the sky.

Levi laid his hands on Isabel's smaller ones, stroked her knuckels gentely. »Wohoo. Gonna be stuck with two brats then.«  
The girl pouted, pinched his belly, and heard his amused breathing. »You're dumb, you big meanie.«

Farlan ruffled her red hair, finished his bottle of beer. »Izzy, you're 17 now. What's on your bucket list?« He pulled a box of cigarettes out of the pocket of his caridgan, but instead of fiddling an orginal out, he chose a self-made one, and handed it to Isabel.

The green eyes sparkled. »You really want to smoke a doobie with me, Farlan!?«, she asked happily, throwing her arms around the ash blond boy. »Thank you! I'm so glad you're giving me the nod!«  
»Actually«, he said, »It was Levi who convinced me and, you know, made me agree. But, young lady, this is the first and _last_ time I allow you to smoke weed.«

Isabel kissed the cheek of her ›Big Bro‹, who tried to rub the kiss off. »Thanks!«  
»Don't mention it.«  
The raven watched his best friend putting the white cigarette filter between her rosy lips with hands shaking of excitement. She lit the canabis and tobacco filled roll, let the white smoke fly upwards to where whatever god was living.

Isabel coughed after the first drag, but the third time she looked like a real stoner. »I don't feel anything.«  
»Takes a while to work«, Farlan explained, put an arm around her shoulders, while Levi grinned a bit to himself.

»Feelin' something now?«, he asked after some time had passed.  
Isabel thought about it abit before she finally answered, »My sight's affected. It's kinda... lagging? I'm tired and hungry.«  
»Are ya feelin' alright?«  
The girl smiled. »Everything's fine. The weed makes me feel... free.«  
»Good. That shit was awfully expensive.«  
»It smells terribly.«

Levi glanced at the fire place which became their only source of light since the sun had said goodbye to their little world, just like some numbers on normal people's arms.

He thoroughly swept the ash off Farlan's black sweatshirt that showed a white writing saying ›Cigarettes After Sex‹, as well as a picture of a grey feather.

It was one of those nights in which he wondered how life would be with a soulmate. Would this special moments with his friends still be _special moments_?

»Isabel!« Her mother. »Your other guests are here!«  
»Shit.« She gave the doobie to Farlan, who stubbed it quickly out and put it back into his box, then in his pocket. Carefully, she stroked her jeans dress tidy before going inside the house.

Soon, Isabel came back with company, three people, and sat down with them on the picnic blanket that was spread out by Farlan and Levi before.  
The boy with the raven hair now faced a girl in Isabel's age with black hair which reached to her shoulders. She wore a slack, white crop top, a long black skirt and a red scarf hugged her neck warmly.  
Next to her, in the middle of three newbies, a boy with blond hair ensconced himself before stroking his white polo shirt which he decided to stuff inside his high-waisted jeans (Farlan examined this outfit with a funny look).

But all of Levi's attention was thrown at the plain boy who sat face-to-face with Farlan.  
His chocolate, messy hair, the sun-kissed skin, the eyes as green as the caribbean's seas, the white teeth- everything was making him seem like a flawless angel; even the colorful, oversized jacket and the simple white Shirt above his Jeans.

The blond boy seemed to be nervous, he never mixed with people; just like the brunet, but he was more comfortable with it.  
Calm, extroverted, charismatic. That's how you could describe the black-haired girl.

»So, tell me«, Farlan demanded, »what are ya guys called?«

The girl stroked her hair, smiled slightly. »Mikasa Ackerman.«  
»Same name as Levi«, Isabel giggled, but her mouth was shut when Levi elbowed her.  
»My name's Armin Arlert«, the blond introduced himself in a shyly manner, but smiled nevertheless brightly.  
»I'm Eren Jäger.« Although his name was German, you couldn't notice any sort of accent while speaking, as if he knew how to speak both of the languages perfectly.

Levi experienced a slight touch of envy, but the feeling disappeared as fast as it could.  
While he was staring at the fairly tanned boy, Farlan took the opportunity and introduced himself.

»Levi, you okay?«  
Isabels voice gripped his arm, pulled him back to his senses and suddenly felt the ten eyes pacing about his body.  
»I'm...« He couldn't bring another word past his lips, his chest grew tighter and tighter with every single breath he took and he became abruptly tense. »Fuck«, Levi whispered and tried to gain control of his body again.

Isabel rubbed his back slowly and gently, trying to help his breathing with a calm rythm.  
»Levi«, he finally said with a shaking voice while denying everyone the most awkward eye contact; ironically, he pushed up his glasses.

»It's a pleasure to meet you, Levi«, Eren told him, put out his hand, and gifted the black-haired boy a encouraging smile.  
Levi took the tanned hand reluctantly in his own and shook it- however, his muscles relaxed and a powerful energy, which would have knocked him out of socks if he hadn't been sitting, streamed through his veins, as he felt the warm skin on his own, colder one.  
»Likewise.«

Once their special contact ended, the cozy warmth in their fingers disappeared.  
Looking into one another's eyes, they searched for _something_ , completely in vain though.

»Let's rest here, it's warm. We can go inside when we freeze our tails off.« Farlan waited a few seconds - he saw Mrs. Magnolia's shadow falling out of the kitchen window right on the spot next to him and he knew she'd kill him if she witnessed him giving her precious daugther drugs - before the lights inside the house vanished, leaving til someone switched them on again. »We got blanket's here if ya wanna stay longer outside«, he added, handing Isabel the doobie back.

In the meantime, Levi turned the string of lights - colorful, round paper lanterns - on which was hanging in the garden. They wrapped it around the clothesline rope that was hanging there, forming a triangle.

»You blazing?«, Mikasa asked surprised and pulled up the hem of her skirt, before fidgeting with the soft cloth.  
The smoke drifted up to the sky and Levi wished he had brought his giant bottle filled with that bursting bubble stuff to fill them with the weed's milky smoke.  
He thought of the times when they were poor and he had to mix the liquid just with water and dish soap.  
»Got a problem with it?«

The black-haired girl showed a slight smile and shook her head. »Nah, I smoke weed, too.«  
»Great.«

Now they just sat there in silence, listened to the soft sounds of Richard Orofino's ›Not Old Enough‹ which helped the awkward atmosphere to blend into a relaxed mood.  
When the doobie was smoked to the filter Isabel threw it over into the neighbour's garden and went inside.

»How old are you?«, Armin asked curiously, sat cross-legged and eyed the boys up.  
Farlan played with a strand of hair, rolling it between his finger tips. »'M twenty, Levi is nineteen. What about you?«  
»I'm 16 years old«, the blond boy said, »'Kasa and Eren are 17.«

Levi nodded politely, wanted to escape the happening scene, and distanced himself a bit.  
Then Isabel came back with three bottles of wine and grinned. »Since I don't have cups or anything, we have to drink out of the bottles. Two people each bottle.«

Disgusted by the idea of sharing a bottle, getting some of other people's salvia in his mouth, Levi's mouth corners grew heavy, sinking down in his face.  
»Farlan and I share one, Armin and Mikasa, Eren and Levi. Yes, _perfect_.«

Levi knew why he had to drink out of one bottle with the brunet boy, Isabel wasn't blind. She definetly saw what Eren did to his body, not to mention what it did to his soul for a second.  
She wanted her best friend to come out of his shell, to lower his walls, to have some fun with other people - strangers.

Eren opened the bottle of wine without big effort, looked over to the boy he was gonna share it with and let him take it.  
»You're really not havin' at least one cup left, Izzy?«, Farlan asked the red-haired girl when he noticed Levi's disgust.

»Nah, really don't have one cup, sorry.« Of course Isabel lied. She wanted her best friend to jump over his shadow, to stop being the ripped wallflower that was afraid of other people's salvia.

Levi took a sip after placing the black glass between his now minorly blue lips.  
The wine was tasteful, a bit fruity and sweet, but also fairly dry.  
Perfect.

Isabel and Farlan waited curiously for his judgement, but when he nodded, saying »Great«, they grinned and opened a bottle.  
Although their eyes were focused on the bottle, they didn't let slip Levi giving his to the brunet boy in front of him with shaky hands.  
But Eren's smile only made the shaking inside his body worse.

 

-x-

 

»[I need some sleep](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8TlgTYWOn8)/ I can't go on like this/ I tried counting sheep/ But there's one I always miss«, Levi sang quietly to himself, lay on one of the blankets, and stared up to the sky while smoking a cigarette.

Eren laid down right next to him, Mikasa and Armin went inside to use the toilet, and Isabel and Farlan welcomed the pizza boy.  
»Hey, you«, he greeted him warmly, almost affectionately, put his arms beneath his head.  
Levi swollowed thickly, glanced at Eren's side profile. »Hey«, he said after some time was lapsed away.

»›L'archipel‹, you know, the French word for ›archipelago‹, sounds like ›Arschnippel‹.«  
The black-haired boy completely stopped, the cigarette was held one or two centimeters away from the pale lips, and the gray eyes threw a confused glance over to the green ones. »What? 'Arch-nipple?' What the hell?«  
»No, not ›arch-nipple‹. I said ›Arschnippel‹. It's German for... uh, assnipples? You know, nipples, but, like on the ass.«  
Levi grinned amusedly, although he was quite a bit dazed by Eren's thoughts. »Just like shitting boobs or what?« His breath came out intermittently as a form of laughing. »Yuck.«  
»You gotta admit, it's funny«, Eren said, still observing Levi.

The brunet boy continued staring for a while, smiling like an idiot while doing so.  
He thought that Levi was cute; the round glasses and the freckles stole his feeling for time.  
However, wasn't it strange?, Eren thought, because he still had to meer his soulmate.  
Was he even allowed to find somebody else, somebody that isn't his destined lover, attractive?

»Can I have a puff?«, Eren asked Levi, who was feeling pretty uncomfortable under his stare, after a while.  
Reluctantly and with uppermost care, the raven-haired he gave his cigarette away and watched it being put between soft yet wet lips from thinking it was a good idea to spread salvia over someone's cigarette filter.  
»Smoking's bad«, Eren coughed and threw the cig onto the ground before stepping on it.

»Hey, that was still half a cig!« Levi sighed, already annoyed by the following talk. »And yes, I know. I'm being told that since I started.«  
»Why do you smoke then?«  
»Stress. The nicotine helps me calming down.«  
»You're depressed, aren't you?«

Surprised by his question, Levi glanced at him for a second before he avoided the beautiful green again. »I- I don't know. What makes you think I'm depressed, brat?«  
Eren laughed loudly, placed his hands on his belly and grinned to the sky. »›Brat‹? The 19th century called, it wants its insults back«, he teased.  
»Your future self called, he wants his flawless smile back«, Levi ›teased‹ back.  
»Ah, we're good, I'm sorry.« Despite the implicit threat, Eren was in a good mood. »I suspected depression because something seems fishy about your _timer_. Is it alright?«  
»Why do you ask?« Levi pulled the sleeves over his knuckels and could feel his heart beat faster.

»The last digit never changes.«  
The older boy kept quiet after that sentence.  
»You're a _defect_ , aren't you?« Both of them waited for an action that would normally wake up even the most sleep-drown pity you could bring up for another human being.  
But it never came.

The gray eyes moved to the green ones. »Since I'm eleven years old«, he answered honestly, cleaning his glasses with a small piece of fabric afterwards.

»Oh. Uhm... And?« Eren really desired to know more about Levi, because he's the one that made him feeling at ease, maybe even _home_.  
»Listen, Eren«, Levi began, »You're not my headshrinker. I don't wanna tell you the story of my life. If you wanna read a tragedy, move your butt into a libary. There are enough open books ready for you to read.«

»Closed books allure me more. Why would I want to read something that's easy to read?« Eren smiled kindly. »Tell me your story, Levi. Special people know more of this world. They see this world through different eyes.«  
The black-haired boy hesitated. This boy made this evening definetly not easy to handle. Couldn't he just... Go away?  
Yet there was something about this plain, not-plain boy that made him not move an inch. Eren was different. He didn't mock him.

»If I really wanted to read a dull tale of love with a happy end, boring and spineless characters and unneeded drama I wouldn't ask you, would I? I would _live_ this kind of love story. Because it's my destiny, right?«

They were on the same page.

Same paragraph, same line.

»My dad packed his stuff before I was even born. He just... eloped. Ever since then my mom and I stayed with my uncle who never is home, really. He teached me how to defend myself. I was harassed in school. ›Defect‹, the word that was written all over my body in the boy's locker room. With Sharpie's. I kinda forgot how to respect them, I was afraid.« Levi's story found a short break. »When I turned 15, Kenny got me some training stuff. Free weights. And after some weeks of hard training I gained muscles.«

Levi had anything but an extremly masculine figure, but he wasn't weak- the opposite, actually. He was very strong, he could carry a tall, not-so-thin man if he wanted to.

»Anyway, the mockery stopped soon after I won some fights. Self-defense fights. Only a few students gave a me a funny look, sometimes there were rather short... arguments. But Hanji, Jean, Isabel and Farlan were always by my side.«  
Eren listened carefully, not missing a single syllable.  
»They advised me to, you know, do researches. For my soulmate. 8 years ago, a tragic event had to happen. Why would my _timer_ die if nothing took place? Sadly, nobody ever reached out to me. He or she is probably dead.«  
Shrugging, he looked up to the sky. »I accepted my fate. Now I'm here.«

»One wise man once said, ›Es wäre heut nicht, wie es ist, wäre es damals nicht gewesen, wie es war.‹ Today wouldn't be as it is, if it then hadn't been as it had been«, Eren said, moving closer to Levi whose heart did funny things and whose brain ordered him to move away.  
»You don't wanna tell me how sorry you are? How much pity you feel for me? What an inferior or pitiful being I am?«, Levi asked to which Eren shook his head.

»Far from that. I admire you.«

Before the black-haired boy had the chance to respond, Isabel cut off his tongue. »Pizza is here! Warm and cheesy!«, she reported loudly, the hunger almost eating her guts.  
The girl was truly happy about Levi warming up to another person, her prayers were heard.

Farlan was typing on his phone's screen when he arrived Isabel outside.  
»Later, we all will be playing spin the bottle! Or truth or dare!« The red-haired girl danced inside again, Farlan waited for the other two boys.

Levi took a deep breath and instantly knew what Isabel was up to.

»C'mon, guys! We're gotta eat some slices of delicious pizza now!«, Farlan baited them grinning.


	2. Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy the chapter, if there are any recurring errors, be not too shy to inform me about it!

Levi looked on his arm.  
07:09:23:06:41:58

He knew them by heart.  
Just because they never change.

Next to him was Farlan, fast asleep and snoring quietly. He held his stuffed animal, a reindeer, close to his chest and always moved a bit closer to Levi with his back, trying to gain more space.

Levi stared through the tranquility, listening to the dark.  
Due to the wan light he could make out the silhouette of his friends and Isabel's party's guests, but only if he saw with the outer corner of his eyes.

The red-haired girl was sleeping on the chair, probably drooling over whatever she was dreaming of.  
Meanwhile, Mikasa and Armin decided to share an inflatable mattress and Eren was lying on the twoseater on the right side of the sleeper Levi and Farlan were currently lying on, snuggling deep into a woollen blanket.

Thanks to his existence as an insomniac he was everything but sleeping for the past three hours what he only noticed because of the green, digital figures on the DVD-player that said, 5:26 am.

Sighing, he stood up, stretching quietly after doing so, and went into the kitchen to drink a glass of warm milk.  
Just as he grabbed one of the translucent containers, the lights suddenly turned on which caused him to almost drop the fragile item.  
»Would you mind making a glass more of warm milk, please? For me?«

Levi turned around, his muscles relaxed at the sight of Eren standing there. »Nope.«

Some minutes later, they sat on the stairs in front of the Magnolia's entry door and each of them held a glass of milk in their hands.  
»Insomnia?«, Eren asked quietly, staring at the sky which slowly stripped down its navy blue coat to reveal a colourful, warm dress.

Reluctantly Levi nodded, rubbed his eyes, and the world was blurred, fuzzy, vague to him because he didn't wear his glasses. »And you? Restless sleep?«  
Eren only hummed in response to confirm his assumption. »The creaking of the floor woke me up. Isn't bad tho. I get to see the sun rise at... 5:40 am.« He grinned like a Cheshire cat and Levi couldn't take his eyes off him; especially because he was in range of flawless seeing.  
And the sight wasn't bad either, Levi thought.

He didn't feel uncomfortable around Eren because of his sincere, hearty behaviour. He was warm; he was almost like a sun.

Well, he indeed had been a celestial body, just not a sun but a star.  
A long, infinite time ago.

While Levi was in the depths of his thoughts, Eren took the opportunity to glance at the freckles and just wrapped his hands around Levis face, stroking the small, brown dots on Levi's cheeks.

Immediaty the raven-haired boy slipped out of his soft grip, his heart throbbed inside his ear and the air he kept in his lungs vanished to the workd outside his body.

»I'm sorry, Levi-«  
»I-It's fine, brat... I just... got surprised by it, I guess.«

Again, Eren smiled to himself, his green eyes wandered from the grey ones to the freckles. »They're pretty.«  
»Who?«  
»Your freckles. Or you in general.«

The compliment caught Levi off guard. In less than 3 seconds he forgot a whole language, every single word he knew.  
But one thing left his lips. »Hnk.«

Eren's genuine laugh was audible, his arm was around Levi during that time. »'s that okay?«, he asked, and when the shorter boy nodded more relaxed than before, the brunet boy let his tensed muscle rest, too. »Good.«

»You're... different«, Levi said when they drank their milk and shy rays of sunlight came out of the shadows.  
With that, they green eyes once again left the sky to switch to the sight of Levi's face. »›Different‹? I sure hope so. Being normal is boring.«

»Being normal doesn't make you become a social misft.« Levi's eyes showed a massive amount of pain while beinh pointed in the direction of his arm. »›Congeniality equals fortune‹. Fuck fortune. They can shove the fortune up their asses.«

Again, Eren was surprised as Levi used a vulgar language, because all he could think of when he saw the round glasses and the cute cheeks with the fawn freckles was a kitten with fluflly fur and soft paws.  
»To be honest, I haven't recieved any fortune yet.« Eren showed the shorter boy his arm.  
01:09:24:17:34:52  
01:09:24:17:34:51  
01:09:24:17:34:50  
01:09:24:17:34:49

»How does it feel like?«, Levi asked, stroking softly the black figures and feeling a light pulsation.  
»Like a little heart.«  
»No, I was talking about... Knowing that you're gonna meet your significant other in less than two years?«

»It feels... It feels like a dead end. There's no escape, I guess. When I met him or her, they might be stunning. Or the meeting will be awkward. But I'll love them anyway. I can't gain any experience before that. I won't need it, because I won't need to be experienced. Every first time will be with my soulmate.«

Levi stared into Eren's eyes, continued stroking his skin, and felt bad for him.  
He was free, he could to anything he wanted with everybody, as long as it wasn't somebody that is or will be taken.  
But those, who's destiny was decided, couldn't escape. They were thrown into cold water, they can- no, they had to accept it; because it was destined.  
Without any free will.

»You don't have to do anything. The only thing you have to do is die, because it's unpreventable.« Green met Grey. »You can live life like I live life. You just gotta find the courage to do that, probably.«  
»Papa wouldn't like it. He's really serious about this topic.«  
»My mother never asked for her son to become a _defect._ «

Eren took Levi's delicate hand, intertwined their fingers. »I finally feel understood thanks to you. You know what I'm talking about. _It_ is more curse than blessing.«

Levi was observing their hands for the longest time. He wasn't disgusted by the contact, he didn't even feel uncomfortable. The brunet boy was gifting him a feeling of inner peace, of warmth, of unconditional affection.

Althought you wouldn't hold hands with a stranger, Levi didn't mind feeling Eren's slightly sweaty palm on his own. Actions like this do not always indicate love. Isabel sometimes pressed a kiss on his cheek and they didn't love each other in a romantic way.

And this bond between the two boys wouldn't become _that_ serious anyway. Maybe.

Softly, just to try, Levi squeezed Eren's hand and the small gesture got a response, the same action to be exact.  
»This is fine«, the brunet boy asked but it sounded more as if he just realised it.

»Yes«, Levi confirmed. »It feels quite nice.« Internally, he was cursing himself for being already this close to Eren; holding hands. That definetly wasn't on Strangers' Level.

»Mama always told me that skin contact is important for every human being. You feel secure.« The brunet boy ruffled his own hair, never stopped looking at the person next to him because he couldn't, Levi's face was like a handcuff for eyes. Yes, that's what Levi was. Eye-catching.  
Eren didn't care for the reason, for the god, for the higher being, for whatever that made him feel the way he feels. He wanted to let it happen as long as it happened.

»Is that why you're naked during sex?«, disrupted a female's voice the two boys.  
Although ›disrupting‹ would be the wrong word. Eren thought that nothing could destroy the mood - what kind of mood it was, he didn't know -, while Levi reckoned that there was nothing that could be interrupted, they were just strangers. Well, he wanted to reckon that, but that'd be a lie.

Eren turned around, let go of Levi's hand, when a cold pair of green eyes fell on them. »Hi, Cordelia.«  
»Good mornin'«, Levi greeted Isabel's mother.  
»Good morning, you two. I'll drive to work now. Don't burn my house down. Tell your mothers ›Hi‹ from me!« Mrs. Magnolia hurried the stairs down, hopped in the car, and smiled once more at the boys on the front porch before driving off.

»She'll tell my mother.« Levi swallowed thickly.  
»About what?« Eren tenderly tapped the other boy's finger tip who didn't took his hand again.  
Instead, he just breathed shakily. »About us holding hands. She'll interrogate me about the reason and my thoughts. Furthermore, she'll talk my ears off because I'm not allowed to be in a relationship with anybody that isn't a _defect_ or-«

  
»Hey«, Eren said a bit more sternly. »Levi, relax. Breath in... Breath out. Slowly. Everything's fine.«  
This time, Eren took Levi's hand without any form of warning, caressed his back in little circles while pulling him closer, until they hugged each other awkwardly.

Levi's heart pace slowed down a bit, his respiration normalized, but the thoughts were running wild.

Kuchel would misinterpret the gesture.  
It's bad enough already that her son was a _defect_ , however, having an affair with a normal person whose partner had not died yet?

 

-x-

 

»Levi Ackerman.«  
The black-haired boy stopped his movements.  
Did Isabel's mother hate him? Or was she just _worried_ about him?

»Yes, Mom?«  
»Come into the living room, please.«

Slowly, Levi undressed his jacket, pushed the glasses up his nose and put his shoes into the shoe cabinet.«

He entered the living room and immediately felt Kenny and Kuchel's eyes on him. »Hi?«  
»Whose sweater is this?«, his uncle asked, barely seeing him above the edge of the newspaper.  
»It's Farlan's. He lent me it.«

Kuchel relaxed in her seat, stood up, and hugged her son. »I already had my thoughts...«  
»What? Thought that I, a _defect_ , fucked someone?« He was disappointed in his mother, but hugged her back anyway.

Levi loved her with everything he got because she kept him although he was such a disgrace.  
She could have sent him away, deliver him to a special ›camp‹, when he had been 11 years old, just like a defect toy.

His mother sighed deeply. »Cordelia called this morning. Is it true?«  
Levi bit his lip and squeezed Kuchel a bit, didn't want the hug to end because Kenny would speak up then and his opinion was the last thing he wanted to hear in that moment.  
»Yes, it's true. But it was just an act of friendship.«

Kuchel looked deeply into the grey eyes, searched for lies and insecurity, and nodding afterwards. »Great.« She pressed her lips on his forehead, kissing him lovely as if she wanted so express her pride.

Seconds later Kenny stood up, put the newspaper on the table and. »I don't know when I'll be home again. So please put the food in the fridge. Bye.«  
»Bye.«  
He hesitated for a second, but decided to ruffle his nephew's hair before he disappeared.

Afterwards Kuchel let go of her son, placed her hands on his shoulders. »Tell me, Sweetie, why did you hold hands with somebody? You don't even hug Kenny on his birthday!«

Levi needed a few heart beats to collect himself. »I... I don't know, Mom. Eren is different.«

She took his face in her hands, stroked his hair and smiled a bit. »If it... is more than, Sweetheart, you can talk to me, okay? I'm there for you.«  
»Yeah. Thanks.«  
»No matter if you're homosexual or if you like some not-defect. I'll listen to you and will understand you.«

Levi arched an eyebrow in confusion, but before he had the chance to question his mother Kuchel had turned around and walked into the kitchen.

So he went upstairs to his room, in which he stripped down until the only piece of clothing he wore were his boxers.  
After that, Levi entered the bathroom and examined himself in the mirror because of Eren's compliment.  
_›They're pretty. Your freckles. Or you in general.‹_

Pale skin. Black, straight hair. Short and faint feminine traits. Sinewy muscles. Thin eyebrows. Cheekbones. Sharp jaw-line. Freckes. Bluish gray eyes.

He looked just like his mother, except that she was a tiny bit taller and had more fat content in her body. And Levi was more muscular.

Maybe Eren forgot his glasses or lost his contact lenses?

Levi took a shower, washing the evening-breeze off his hair and the cold from his legs, as well as  the smell Farlan's weed and his own deodorant off his whole body.

In his room he dressed himself again in a cozy shirt and clean boxer shorts, opened the music app on his phone, and let the music fill the air.

Levi's own four walls had been white at some point in his life, but now they were covered with posters, concert tickets and photos, as well as several chains of light. The floor was dark brown, the room was clean.  
The only mess you could find was his desk: Lots of CDs and books, a laptop and cigarettes.

His phone ringed, so he unlocked it.

 **Eren**  
»Are you going to the funfair next saturday?« _1:56PM_

 **Me**  
»yeah with two friends why?« _1:57PM_

 **Eren**  
»Two friends? Great, I won't third-wheel then. I'll be there.« _1:58PM_

Levi's belly felt fluffy; maybe the next wouldn't be so bad as expected.

 

-x-

 

»Hanji, I swear to fucking god, if you don't stop singing this dumb song, I'm gonna kill you.«

The brunet gril pouted, grinned then. »Aw, Levi, I just want to show you my acceptance and support!«

Levi knew that very well, but there was nothing that had to be supported. After all, Eren and him would only be friends, right?

Jean just laughed, put an arm around him, and pulled Levi to himself, being careful with his beer bottle while doing so. »Yes. Baby Boy, we're here for you.«

The grey eyes rolled, looked to the black sky without stars. No surprise, since the bright lights of the amusement rides and booths were shining, spending almost the whole town light.

»When's your crush comin'«, Jean asked, leaning on the handrail, which kept people from falling into the sea.  
Hanji sat herself on the wooden floor facing the dark water and let her feet hang some meters above the surface of the wetness. She placed her huge, blue teddy in front of her upper body while Levi sat on top of the handrail and lit a cigarette.

»He's not my _crush_ _ Anyway, he should be there soon. We didn't say where to meet tho. He's probably looking for us.«  
Jean grinned again. »What does he look like again? Brown hair, green eyes, tanned skin? Sexy smile?«  
»God, Jean, I- I've never said ›sexy smile‹. It's... Beautiful, sincere... Warm and lovely.«  
»Wow, that's gay.«

»Oh, thank you.«

Immediately Levi looked up, recognizing Eren's voice.

The brunet boy's cheeks were reddish and his smile was existent. »Hi.«  
»Holy shit, Levi, if I had known that Eren was _that_ hot, I'd have covered my timer«, Jean whispered, his eyes travelling Eren's form up and down.

Hanji rolled her eyes, laid down on the ground and looked at Eren. »Ignore that jerk. Anybody who isn't after 3 seconds on a tree isn't save from him.«  
»Yup«, Levi confirmed, but he was not better than his friend; he himself couldn't take his eyes off Eren's body although he just wore a plain white t-shirt, some jeans that cut off a bit at the end and a pair of sneakers.  
It was a simple outfit but enough to make Levi lose every word he knew.

Eren let his fingers wander through his brown hair, grinned with one corner of his mouth and held his hand out for Hanji. »Gonna do. Hey, I'm Eren.«  
»Yooo, it's nice to meet you. I'm Hanji!«

»My name's Jean, hot stuff.« The ash-blond boy wrapped an arm around the brunet boy. »Do you like ›The Office‹?«  
»Uhm, yeah?«  
»We're gonna be buds, babe.«

Levi continued smoking, felt a green pair of eyes linger on him.  
To Eren, the pale face looked even more attractive in the colourful light, causing him so smile.

»Why are you smiling?«, Hanji asked, stroking her teddy's belly.  
»I'm pleased by other people's beauty«, Eren answered without looking away from Levi's face, who noticed this and blushed.

»Keep him!«, the brunet girl whispered to her friend and Jean drank a bit of his beer.  
»Yo, where should we go? The Ferris wheel looks lit.«

»The last arriving is a slowpoke!«, Hanji suddenly screamed, immeadiately she and Jean started running, accidentally shoving other people.

Eren and Levi were looking at each other's faces, before they started running, too.

They heard Hanji's laugh far away, Jean was grinning happily and Levi and Eren were catching up already, although the crowd of people was growing bigger.

The brunet girl stumbled, fell, but landed on her teddy, laughing all the while. »NOOO!«, she cried, not wanting to lose.

Levi was enjoying himself, ignoring all the people around him. He felt infinite, feeling the lights and attractions were rushing past him like  water rushes past a fish that swims upstream.

The arm and legs of his body felt like tied up by ropes which wanted to keep him away from running, and although it was just a childish race he wanted to be the first.

His black denim jacket sat thight on his body due to his speed and the body contact, as well as his pastel blue shirt and white pants. The black hair was a mess when he arrived as second one.  
Jean was on first place, Eren got there a few seconds after Levi.

  
Hanji pouted when she finally came up to them. »Idiots.«  
»Lame duck!«, Jean teased her, grinning broadly.

After that, they stood there in silence, slowly breathing normaly. Hanji cursed about herself; she wore leggins and a big sweater and she was sweating.  
Jean was advicing her to undress which earned him a smack on the back of his head by Levi like always.

Some time passed until they finally were allowed to sit on one of the benches of the Ferris wheel and slowly reached for the stars.

»Wow«, Eren whispered amazed, he had never seen a view that could be compared to this one. Where he had lived, there were only small village festivals unlike this funfair.  
Especially without the sea.

»Beautiful, isn't it?«, Hanji asked, Levi observed Eren and it felt wrong, prohibited to see him like that. But it also triggered a weird feeling in his stomach, making him questioning if that's what heaven would be like.  
Blue. Free. Full of clouds. Infinite.

»Yes«, Levi quietly answered, still looking at the brunet boy next to him.  
Jean laughed. »You're an idiot.«

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for being so slow. m being pretty busy the next weeks, school will start soon again and it's my last year! So either I'm gonna write a lot to cover up that I have problems and want to forget about becoming an adult person with responsibilities or I'm gonna fall into a pitch black hole of depression haha kill me bYE


	3. Three

»Hello. So you're Isabel's cousin Eren?« Kuchel examined the brunet, smiled brightly, and put out her hand.

»Yes, Ma'am. Eren Jäger. It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Ackerman.«  
He shook her hand, glanced at Levi. »You look very alike. Now I know where Levi's got the attractive traits from.«

Levi had to look away, he didn't want his mother's stare on him.

»Oh, thanks, I guess. You don't have call me ›Mrs. Ackerman‹, just call me by my first name.«  
»Thanks, Kuchel.« Eren said with a beautiful smile.

»Do you want some sandwiches?«

»We're not hungry, Mom.«

»Something to drink?«

»No thanks.«

»Eren, do you wanna see some photos of little Levi bath-«

»Mom! No, he doesn't want to!« Levi took Eren's wrist in his hand, just pulled him along up the stairs, where he entered his room.

Kuchel's giggle irritated him, because she knew that she was embarassing him.

The shorter boy closed the door, forbid himself to sigh deeply, and just went over to his record player to let music fill the room.  
A vinyl of The 1975 was playing, the soft, dreamy tunes of _fallingforyou_ made their way into their ears.  
»Make yourself comfortable. Mi casa es tu casa, mi amigo.«  
Levi opened one of the windows, pulled out his lighter and a cigarette pack.  
He fished a cigarette out of the box, put it between his lips, and finally didn't light it.

»Your room is fresh.« Eren sat down on the bed, capturing the moment with wide eyes. »And your mother is nice.«

»Might be the case. My uncle is a strict prick.«  
Levi just made himself comfortable right next to Eren, he even put his around his figure and didn't show any signs of discomfort.

Although they were alone, the raven-haired boy was a nervous wreck on the inside.

»Is your mom always like that? I mean... Is she always so mom-ish when you bring a stranger with you?«

You could have heard Levi swallowing if the car outside hadn't been racing. »No... You're kinda special.«

»Why?«

»Cus you're not like other people I know and don't know.«

»Why though?«, Eren asked again, just as Levi was about to light his cig.

»Don't ask so many questions. It will hurt your head."

"Why?"

Levi sighed, put the cigarette and the lighter back to their place, and stared into Eren's eyes.  
He didn't know how he could ever explain it that his mother would support him with about anything.  
»I can't say it.«

»Try harder.« Eren had a thick head.  
If something was inside, it wouldn't disappear that quickly.

Levi didn't know if he liked that or not.

»I don't wanna be your friend/   
I just wanna kiss your neck«, Matty Healy sang in the background and the grey eyes found a new target. Eren's lips.

And the whole atmosphere was a different one than to before.

»That's exactly what I had in mind«, Levi whispered, looking green eyes again.  
Slowly, he leaned into Eren's body heat, searching for any sign of rejection.

The brunet boy, however, didn't move a muscle, he didn't even blink, the only thing he did was moving his lips against Levi's and closing his eyes to experience the kiss in its full existence.

The kiss was innocent, naive, inexperienced; sweet and bitter at the same time.

Levi's belly was tingling and he was afraid of his love interest to feel his heart beating faster than the speed limit.

But when Eren's warm hands made their way to his hip and his cheek, the world stopped spinning as it was starting to be finitely infinite.

To Levi, the kiss was a forbidden candy just like Isabel's marzipan ring at 1 a.m. Ephermeral.  
To Levi, everything but Eren's feelings were irrelevant.

Grinning into the chaste kiss, Eren let his fingers glide underneath Levi's shirt and felt the smooth skin while the raven-haired boy did shudder slightly thanks to Eren's touch.

They didn't care about the time passing during their little, drunk love.  
Still, they needed oxygen so they had to part their lips to breathe normally again, wishing the little eternity didn't end that fast.

The grey eyes big, the green eyes half-closed.

»That's really funny, Levi. I was thinking of the exact same thing. And... feeling it, too«, the brunet whispered softly, stroking the reddish cheek in front of him.  
Inside of him, there was utter chaos; a storm of feelings that made him the entire opposite of tranquil.He was the sea and he was in the sea the same time.

»O Eren, we shouldn't be doing this at all.«  
Nevertheless, Levi reached for Eren's hands slowly and reluctantly.

»Because you're a defect and I still haven't met my soulmate? Why did you kiss me then in the first place?«

»I couldn't resist anymore«, he confessed, still high from the breathtaking kiss.

The younger boy kissed his forehead, that was hot due to the blood flowing into his head.  
»Then don't hold yourself back from now on.«

»But... I wasted your first kiss! I'm so selfish...«  
Levi's inner philosoph, his joy and sorrow, decided to influence his thoughts.

»Why selfish?«

»Love is selfish.«

»Give me all of your selfishness. I'll enjoy every second of it.«

»You're selfish, demanding me to be selfish!«

The younger boy laughed sincerely. »I don't care, Levi. I will meet my soulmate in the far away future, yes, but I'm currently living here and now. And _here and now_ I feel this special bond between us. So... Ruin me! Ruin me like our parents and society prohibited. Love me like you do.«

The rosy lips were shaking while they came closer to Eren's.  
And the kiss was better; the first one would be the most remembered nevertheless.

Eren leaned more into Levi during the innocent kiss, making the shorter one move back until he could only back down which had been the actual goal.

He steadied himself on his elbows, Eren above him, and let the kiss grew rawer.

_Robbers_ was playing in the background when they layed down onto the mattress, when Levi let his arms fall around Eren's neck.

_»He's got his gun/_

_He's got his suit on/_

_She says, babe/_

_You look so cool«_

»You're handsome.« Levi planted a kiss on the cheek next to the soft, pink mouth pillows.

»Aphrodite said«, the brunet continued and his finger tips danced on the exposed, pale skin above Levi's pants. »You enchanted me fully.«

The light skin tingled under Eren's touch, the rosy lips and grey eyes didn't show any signs of uneasiness, so the hand wandered off to areas beneath the white shirt.

»You tickle me.«

»Uncomfortably?«

»Comfortably.«

»Enjoy it then.«

 

-x-

 

He stomped out the cig quickly when he saw Mrs. Jäger standing in the frontdoor and waved, greeting her.

Eren entered his boyfriend's car, gently took the smaller hand in his, and waited until his mother finally disappeared into the house, giving him the opportunity to kiss his love's cheek.  
 _»Hallo, schöner Mann.«_

»What? What does that mean?«

»›Hello, handsome.‹«

»Suck-up.«

»Babe! I love you so much and you call me a ›suck-up‹?«

»Yup, accept that you're a suck-up.«

»Never, my love.« After that, Levi started driving and his eyes always lasted longer in the left side mirror as an excuse to look at his lovely boyfriend.  
Sometimes he caught a glance Eren was sending him, it was a short one, because he was obviously caught staring.

The brunet boy had to admit that Levi really was sexy driving, due to his concentration and the way his fingers loop around the driving wheel.

»Yo, hot stuff, quit staring at me. Do your parents know about us?«

»Don't break your head over it, Levi.«

»I don't want them to react the same way Kenny would.«

»And I don't care that this isn't normal. I'm _proud_ of it. If it was possible I'd let the world know.«

The raven-haired boy planted hesitantly one of his hands on Eren's thigh, stroking it fondly.   
»Your voice is telling me this in a reproachful way. I just don't want to pull you with me into the abyss I'm already falling in.«

»You always claim that love is selfish. So be the egoist you essentially are, ignore the risk. Like you said, you are already in the abyss.«

Levi didn't dare to answer, his own words were used against him, defeating him with a double-edged sword. »I- I don't wanna be an egoist, Eren.«

»Are you ashamed of us?«

»Don't... Just don't, babe. You know how hard it is for me to express my feelings.«

»Let all of your romance and poetry out.«

Sighing, Levi answered, »I'm not inspired.«

With that, the conversation ended, Eren crossed his arms over his chest and pouted like a little child.  
It wasn't the case that he was angered; the last thing he wanted to do was to force his boyfriend; however he wanted Levi to open up more to him.

So instead of annoying or making his love feel uncomfortable, he continued listening to the mixtape Levi made some time ago.  
And with every passing day he fell in love more and more, not just with the music, but with the boy sitting next to him.  
It was the music he needed, the right music for people who desired new emotions to experience, to overwhelm them.

As they drove through the tunnel, Eren opened the window and reached his hand out for something he could never grasp.

_»I swear you can make my night/ I swear you can make anything wrong seem right.«_

When the car left the giant tube, the sun touched the sea's horizon, drowning itself, forcing the light to slowly die out.  
To their right was the crash barrier separating them from the green side of a hill and a radiant sand beach.

But Levi turned left, drove into the small locality.

»Where are we going to?« Eren's eyes were starring at the light coloured timber facades, some were green, otheres were blue or red and a few were yellow, while the top was a clean white.

»We're in Rose right now. 'S little town. Many surfers are living here.«

After a while, Levi parked at the side of the road and turned his attention towards Eren.   
»I need you to close your eyes. I'm gonna tell you when you're allowed to open them again. And no peaking!«

So when he had made sure that his boyfriend wasn't secretly watching him, he left the car, and came back about 5 minutes later with something big that smelled like pizza.

»Can I look?«

»I don't know. Can you?«

»May I look?«

»No.«

»Meanie.«

 

-x-

 

Eren could hear the fire's flickering and the sound of the sea, could taste the salty wind which was playing with his hair, letting it look like a brown mess.

»Open your eyes«, Levi's voice disrupted the natural sounds, his arms slowly tangling around his boyfriend's belly.

Although his other senses already gave him a pretty fantastic idea of what the older boy had been preparing, Eren was even more excited when his assumptions were correct.

The green eyes captured a red picnic blanket laying on the radiant sand, a camping fire crackling warmly and hot, and a bottle of wine right next to the big pizza box.  
»Babe, I would have never thought that you're the romantic one in this relationship«, the younger boy wispered and softly touched his hand, intertwining their fingers lovely.

»This is marvellous.«

»I sure hope so. The bloody log didn't caught fire accidentally.«

»You've been a boy scout?« The image of a younger Levi in a scout's uniform was just too adorable, it made Eren giggle.

»Yup«, his boyfriend answered, stood up on his tip toes to reach one of the ears, kissing it tenderly. »The five years helped me finding the right path.«  
He let his fingers wander on Eren's belly and chest and stopped them when they were above the heart. »The path to this place.«

»Didn't know you were in my chest, baby«, Eren teased grinning; successful when he heard Levi's annoyed sigh.

»You know how to ruin a moment, god damn.«

The brunet boy turned around to face Levi, to see his eyes sparkling in the fire's light, to express his emotions with a heart-warming smile.  
»You're too cheesy once you're finally being cheesy. My weakness.«

Then their lips touched - it was an sinfully innocent kiss with desire - and after a little dance of glances, they sat onto the blanket and started munching the pizza.

A breath of air travelled through their hair on a finitely infinite journey to a uncertain place in this world.  
Their skin was touching, there was little to no space between their bodies and the fire, the patchwork blanket, and their own body heat helped them to stay warm.  
  
The pizza was gone as well as half of the wine.  
Thanks to Eren, Levi was finally able to take a pull on a bottle another person drank out of; mostly because they kissed more often than they would like to admit.

»Have you ever been skinny dipping?«

»When I was a baby, I guess. Not that I remember.« Eren observed his boyfriend's facial features. »Why? You wanting to-«

»Only if we're ready for it«, Levi quickly answered, taking the other's hand in his own. »I don't want you to feel uncomfortable.«

»Well, it's like swimming...«

Not a single second was wasted undressing until they were facing each other with only their boxers covering their genital area.  
The next step was to go into the freezing water, getting warmed up and fully undress.

This was a rather difficult step as it was already night and water felt like it was fluid ice.

Levi's nose red, his lips blue and Eren's hand always in reach. »C-Cold, but nice.«

He watched the raven-haired boy nod before he pulled him closer. »It'd splash until you're fully drenched. But I don't as I am a gentleman.«

»Wow, you totally deserve an award for that level of politeness.«

»Yeah, right?« Eren's grin made his heart brave and vulnerable.

The cool wetness hugged their bodies thightly like a second skin that wobbled with every move one made.

Levi was almost glowing, his pale appearance reflected the nightly light bulb's beam softly, and Eren wasn't able to bring himself to stop starring at this one person in front of him, at this one person he loved.

»Maybe it's destiny to act against fate.«  
  


Indeed, the black digits on his forearm, their remaining time, were getting less and less, however, Levi made time feel limitless, made time stand still just like on his peaky arm, although the time was passing way too fast for his liking.  
He would have prefered if both of their timers had said 00:00:00:00:00:00.

In contrast, it was a stab through the heart to Levi. He was always reminded that their time in paradise did have a limit.

One day Eren would meet his soulmate, would forget him, forget their time together, and Levi- no, _they_ would be only a far away memory, a broken romance, a stupid love story.

Eren would be happier with his soulmate, just because they were soulmates.  
Because they were from the same star.

And Levi?

He was just a defect.  
He wasn't an outright human being. He would never have kids.  
  
  
The tanned arms wrapped arount the pale torso, pulling it closer, sharing warmth.

There where they were standing Levi already had to swim to stay afloat.

»This was a great idea, babe«, Eren wispered, tickling his boyfriend with his warm breath, but quickly pulled away, when his you-know-what touched Levi's part-that-had-never-seen-the-sun.

»Oh«, was all Levi could let past his lips before his cheeks turned pretty pink.  
  
And suddenly everything was more interesting than the other's gential zone. Even the man near the street who pissed right at a Lamborghini.

After a while, Eren dared to make a move on Levi again, slowly kissing his cortex with the usual affection.  
This time he paid attention to their lower parts; he didn't want to cross their swords again.

»I didn't know that my body is such a pussy. Damn«, Levi laughed awkwardly, hesitantly massaging the taller boy's neck.

»'s cute though.«  
  
Again, the grey eyes were searching for something more interesting, but Eren didn't let him, instead he just kissed him.  
»Can I _please_ say the words, Levi?«  
He brought the tips of their noses together. »Please, please, please...«

»Please, speak them out loud«, the raven-haired boy requested. »I wanna hear 'em.«  
  


»I love you, Levi Ackerman.«

And as soon as the words were replied, Eren let his lips fall onto the skinny collarbone, sucking a purple proof of love into his system.

Meanwhile, Levi grabbed the brown hair and pulled gently, pushing the head more onto his body. »Honey...«

Soon enough, the slightly swollen lips brook loose, a thumb replaced them.  
»Wow... It's like a temporary tattoo«, Eren ascertains, stroking the violet spot to feel its reality. »This your first one, right?«  
  


Levi once had a one-night stand; he was a defect after all.

Why should he expect to find love later in his life?  
Why should he stay a virgin forever?

By now he regretted wasting his first time to a nobody.

But there would be enough first times for Eren and him, so he decided to call himself an »experienced virgin«.

And of course, he did tell Eren about it.  
There should be no secrets in a relationship.

His boyfriend showed nothing but acceptance and understanding.   
  


»My first hickey, yes.« Levi's teeth were showing due to his smile.  
He liked the idea of Eren being his first and with a kiss he shared his joy, let their hearts race a bite.

»Have I been your first kiss, too?«

»My first love-kiss. And my first kiss without a tongue that deep down my throat you'd think it was a rim job.«

»Yuck.«

»Exactly.«

For quite a time they were just observing each others facial movements like enamored idiots, the way a sea's tear dropped back into the water, the muscles behind the skin being relaxed.  
But everything ends at some point.

When Levi sneezed - in a cute manner, as Eren found - they got out of the water and walked back to the car.

Back to the reality.

Back to the world full of mysteries.

  
»Don't wantcha to catch the flu.«  
The brunet's words were kind and sincere, Levi doubted there was any possabilty that he would ever deserved Eren.   
  


When they were fully dressed (except for their boxers), back on the road, and the car's heater was doing its best, the music was playing again.

_»Every breath you take/ Every move you make/ Every bond you break/ Every step you take/ I'll be watching you«_

»Do you wanna sleep at my place or in the car?«, Levi asked, stroking Eren's thigh affectionately.

»Fuck!«

»Really? So soon?«

»No! I forgot to tell my mom! Shit, she's gonna kill me!«

»Oh. Disappointed, but not surprised«, Levi wispered quietly and jokingly. »Let me talk to her.«

Carefully, he just took Eren's phone and called his mother, ignoring his boyfriend's nagging about his dangerous ›call'n'driving‹ as he put it.

»Eren Jäger, where are you!?« Carla was definetely not amused.  
Best timing for the first call.

When Levi hemmed quietly, he could hear the mother frighten by the dark voice.

»Good evening, Ma'am. I wanted to apologize, it's my fault your son isn't at home already. Mh, forgot the time. You know how it is when you're young.«

He knew how to sweet talk and cover up his nervosity at the same time.

And Carla was falling for it.  
»Oh, good evening. I'm going to accept your apology, if you're ready to bring him home. It's already so late and he has to go to school tomorrow.«

»Mama, I'm 17 years old!«, Eren interrupted, had listened to the conversation obviously before he grabbed his phone and put the call on speaker.

»That's exactly why I determine where you have to be located.«

»Can't I sleep at Levi's, Mama? Please! Mami!«

»Darling, I don't think that's a good idea... Levi is a stranger to me.«

»I'm sorry for disrupting this convo, Ma'am, but I'm clean. I didn't let your son go use the cinema's disgusting toilets without Lysol.«

And for the next ten seconds there was nothing.  
Only the sound of the car's motor, the speed and Carla's sigh.

"I haven't changed my mind«, she finally replied and Eren wanted to protest, but she continued.   
»But Levi is welcome here. He can spend the night here.«

Eren's grin was award-winning. »Thanks, Mama!«

»So?«

Levi nodded in agreement. »That's absolutely fine by me.«

 

-x-

 

»Fuck, that's a big-ass room, Eren. I wouldn't mind havin' money, too. Your dad's one lucky man.«

The brunet boy just shrugged, sat down onto his bed and gave his boyfriend a lovely smile.   
»Money's not everything, babe.«

»That's true. But life ain't easy without any cash.«

Eren pulled another bed out from underneath his; it reminded Levi of his old sofa bed he used to have until he was 16 years old.

A little note was placed on the matress.   
› _Clean sheets! - Mama_ ‹

Levi thought of Carla, her warm hand and her bright smile.   
  


She was like his own mother. But Carla's smile was real.  
  


»My mom knows how much you hate chaos. She just didn't know you were a clean-freak.«  
  


Eren looked like his mother a lot.

He hadn't seen his father but he was sure that most of his traits were from Carla.

He always wondered if someone's parents were actually in love. Does love die out at some point in one's life?

  
Ruffling Eren's hair, Levi sat down next to him. »What are we gonna do now?«

»Sporify & Chill, babe.«   
The typical sound of unlocking a phone and playing around with it was hearable, followed by Jimmy Eat World's _The Middle_.  
  
»› _Spotify & Chill, babe_‹? You didn't even offer me anything to drink before and you wanna give me your milkshake? Babe, I love you, but no.«

Eren was busy planting himself on Levi's lap, hugging him tightly.  
That earned him a kiss and a slight grin.

»If giving you my milkshake means I get to be your big spoon, I'll gladly offer you that drink.«

The raven-haired boy couldn't hold a quiet laugh against the soft, pink lips back.  
»You're an idiot. And I'm your tea spoon.«

Eren then kissed his love grinning happily, listening to the blurred music and the far away cars in the street.

»If you wanna cuddle so bad, why did you pull out the second bed? Your bed has the perfect size for two. Maybe even three.«  
Levi's lips wandered to the corner of the other's mouth, then to his jaw line - his guilty pleasure.

Suddenly, the younger boy went completely still, before standing up and making the room ready for ›sleeping-time‹.  
»My Mama will come in again. And I... I haven't talked to her about us yet.«

»Planning on telling her?«

»Yup. When you tell your mother.«

»Fine.«  
  


They changed clothes, shared a lovely kiss, and finally layed down as soon as they heard foot steps coming closer.

When Carla entered the room, the boys were already pretending to have fallen asleep.  
So she sneaked soundlessly over to the bed, pinched Eren's cheek.  
»Goodnight.«

Levi's eyes were still closed, his mind fully awake.

About 2 minutes have passed since Carla had left the room.

He dared to open them to the endless darkness, at least it seemed like it, everything was black and blurred without light, without glasses.  
Cautiously climbing next to Eren, the older boy snuggled into his blanket and slid his arms around the warm torso.

»I love you«, he breathed contentedly and tried to fall asleep.

However, Eren moved a bit and Levi rolled immediately rolled back onto his matress in the matter of 2 seconds.

»I love you, too.«

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally the 3rd chapter's up!   
> Gotta use all of my remaining free-time this school year.   
> I don't know when another chapter will be up, I don't know how much fanfic / how many words are left.  
> I'll try my best!
> 
> Open for critique; if you notice a mistake in language or story don't hesitate to inform me about it!


	4. Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait!   
> I was busy with school & trying to better my mental health.
> 
> Translations at the end!
> 
> If there are any mistakes, don't hesitate and tell me, please! <3

»Disgusting.«  
  
»He should be stoned to death.«  
  
»Brainwashing.«  
  
»Mom, why are they holding hands?«  
  
»Don't look, Annelies! That's forbidden!«

 

Levi found it difficult to swallow, it was hard not to leave hold of Eren's hand.  
Several times he had tried to ease out of his grip, but the brunet would just fasten it, probably to calm him down.

However, it was anything but okay to Levi; it was depressing when people saw Eren with him.

Usually, this world could go fuck itself as long as nobody stopped him from doing what he loved, desired, and even if that wasn't the case, he didn't care.

But it was different when he was with Eren, he made him vulnerable, a target.

»The city is truly pretty«, the brunet boy declared while his eyes wandered, ignoring the glances shooting in his direction which were either hateful, pitiful or grossed out.

His boyfriend, on the other hand, experienced these glances fully - he almost noticed nothing but them - because they were a threat to Eren's peaceful life he still had.

»The only pretty thing around here is you, honey baby.« Levi liked to only see the beautiful things and Eren was like a painting in a rubbish dump.  
»Aw.« The raven-haired boy recieved a kiss on his cheek while being pulled closer to his boyfriend.  
His heart was racing, he felt like suffocating due to the disapproval of the people they were walking past.

When it finally provided the oppurtunity to, Levi disappeared into an alleyway, pulling Eren with him, and fingered a cig out from the pack. »Jesus Christ, Eren, I am gonna go gray thanks to you«, he assured drained, the mass of people freaked him out internally.

»Hey! Everything's okay, babe! You have survived... for 24 minutes! I'm so proud, you did great.«   
Although Eren made him feel warm, the rejection he had known since his 12th year of age - in the form of ignorance or pure pity - had numbed him.

»I sure hope for you that the present is worth this bullshit«, Levi hissed, blowing smoke in the air and relaxing gradually. »After all, I had to buy a new package of cigarettes. Just stopped smoking and now this.«

Eren drew nearer, grinning and nodding. »It will be worth it if you let it happen.«  
The raven-haired leaned onto him, breathing in his lovely scent. »You are kinda wonderful.« He lost himself in the green eyes which were pulling him deeper into the hole to drown him faster.

 

-x-

 

»My parents aren't at home, so don't worry about that«, Eren ensured as he unlocked and opened the front door. His whole body experienced a thrill of anticipation while Levi was still left in the dark; the curiosity was eating him.

»That means we are going to do something your parents should never know about?«   
»Exactly. Well, it's not like they don't know about it - I think. Just yesterday Mama told me about... What's the word... STDs. Sexually transmitted diseases.«  
»Oh.«  
»Anyway, Armin and Mikasa aren't here either and they won't come back soon.«

Levi then had an idea about what Eren had in mind and it let his heart race through his body.  
That idea was confirmed to be true when his boyfriend pushed him gently onto his bed, and kissed his lips sweetly and passionatly.   
»I googled for hours to understand how this will go«, Eren whispered, tugging at Levi's shirt. »Do you even want to do the do?«

Some moments were passing before he recieved an answer from the raven-haired male. »My first time should be experienced with the person I truly love. Therefore yes, I want to have sex with you.«  
He slowly laid his hands on Eren's chest, letting them wonder to the hem of shirt before pulling it over his head.

Afte that, everything elapsed in an endless speed; the lustful, hasty chaste kisses, the hot breath, the sweat all over their skin. Everything was happeing all over in their heads when they were lying blown away next to each other under the blanket, starring at the ceiling, and not knowing what to say.

Eren's hands on Levi's hips, his chest, his crotch, everywhere; even there where the sun would never shine.

Neither of them expected it to work smoothly; they had to laugh at some points. Especially when they were putting on a bright blue condom.

Shortly after, Levi was grabbing his jeans, taking his cigarette package out and fingering out a cig which he lit while laying down.

»That's so cliché«, Eren whispered, laughing breathlessly, and clinged to his boyfriend.   
»Hold up, hot stuff, there's something missin'«, the raven-haired boy interrupted their snuggle session, grabbed his jeans again, and looked for his phone which he took out of a pocket.   
After a few seconds of tapping sounds, a song - ›[ _Affection_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5soixb2U6xM)‹ by Cigarettes After Sex - was raised.

»You're silly.« Nevertheless Eren kissed Levi's neck, noticing his smile after being insulted playfully. »You should play that other song.«

He didn't asked for Levi's permission when he used his phone for a second, changing the song. »That's much better. I know the lyrics of this one«, he told him while placing his hand on his boyfriend's belly again.

Levi turned his head slightly in Eren's direction after blowing some smoke into the air. He was gifted with the sweetest kisses, between which Eren took his time to sing against the pink lips quietly.   
»[Nothing's gonna hurt you, baby](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI8VrXkffcg)... Nothing's gonna take you from my side...«

»You're the silly one, sweetie«, Levi murmured at some point, ending the kiss to take a puff. After the bluish grey left his lips, he took Eren's face in one hand and kissed him again.

»I'll be gladly an idiot if I'm your idiot.« Eren kissed Levi's back when the raven-haired moved to lay on his side. »To be honest, this was better than porn.«  
»... I've always known that you're an idiot.«

»Why? Cause Izzy is my cousin?«  
»No, because you're smile is idiotically adorable, brat.«

Eren was now laughing with all of his heart. »›Brat‹?«, he asked. » _Boi_ , we just had two hours of pure love making, wonderful sex, passionate _fucking,_ and you're still calling me a ›brat‹?«

»You're my fave brat, though«, Levi approved, when Eren was pulling him closer under the blanket, into the heat, into himself. »There's no brat I'd rather spend my time with.«  
He laid on his back again, one arm underneath his head and the other hand on his lips, holding the cigarette.

»I love you«, he promised, a one-corner smile covering his lips, and recieved a chaste kiss.  
»I love you, too.«

 

-x-

 

»Come on, Levi, drink with us!«, Jean hiccuped, who had already reached his limit when he drank 4 bottles of beer. Marco could only shake his head.

»No, I'm gonna drive Eren home later the night. Don't drink'n'drive.« Levi was relaxing on the armchair, laying his arm around his boyfriend who was sitting on the wide armrest. »Although... I wouldn't mind if he had to share a matress again«, he admitted while winking, and then stole a kiss from his love's lips before being punished with a second kiss.

»I wouldn't mind either but my parents do.« Eren was smiling brightly at his boyfriend, staring as amorously as ever. Yet he sighed. »I need some fresh air. I'll be right outside the front door.«

When he left the house, he was leaning onto the handrail of the patio.  
Although he had drunk a few shots of Jägermeister - which tasted like cough syrup to Levi - he was walking quiet normally despite having eating nothing beforehand.

Due to Jean's shisha the room was filled with the odor of sweet wild berries and bitter cherries and Levi was slightly afraid that it would stay in the furnitures; Kenny didn't like fruity smells, he preferred stuff like musk.

Levi threw this little party among friends because he missed them, the chill environment.   
He had been through hell for the college place he applied for and now he was finally able to go to Sina, a rather good college for its price.  
Although it wasn't that expensive, it was a ton of money and work to Levi who had been fighting through the jungle of part-time jobs.

Marco's presence didn't bother him in the slightest, the number of well-known friends was higher.

Isabel was the make-up mannequin for Mikasa an Hanji, they were trying out a look for her - cat eyes and smokey eyes didn't fit to her personality, but damn, she looked ›hella fine‹ as Armin said.   
Farlan was testing Armin's small moped because it sounded weird and did a ›FFFFFFFFF‹ noise instead of a ›HHHRRRR‹.

Jean took a tune of his shisha, smoked a bit with Marco who was reluctant to use the device.

Levi wanted to join them, but the responsabilty and wish for Eren to be safe was taking over, so he declined the offer to smoke with his horse-faced friend.  
He couldn't describe his luck; Carla finally accepted Eren's and his relationship, didn't forbid him to leave the house to see Levi.   
Not that it had stopped Eren to sneak out and use a ladder to find a way into his boyfriend's house at night.

»Hey, hot stuff«, Levi said, when he came out to the brunet boy.   
It seemed like he wasn't heard, Eren was still singing quietly to himself.  
»Entertain my faith... Entertain my faith...«

However, when Levi placed his hands over the green eyes he stopped.  
»Guess who?«  
»An angel?«  
»No need to sweet-talk, nothing's gonna happen tonight between us, babe.«  
»Too bad.«

Levi took his hands off Eren's face, standing next to him. »'S'everything fine?«, he asked.  
»It's just that I think too much, you know? It's... my timer. Us«, Eren answered honestly, his eyes were floating on Levi's face like it was a sea and they were little boats. »We have so little time.«

_00:11:30:15:21:03_

The raven-haired boy couldn't help but stare at the tanned face before glancing down and laughing bitterly with a deep breath. »You want to end it before it's over?«

»No... As egoistic as it sounds I could not let you go. It would hurt you anyway, whether it be now or in a year.« Eren grabbed Levi's hand softly, stroking it the most tender way.  
»I never said that I wanted you to let me go. Be the egoist that loves me.«

»I knew you would say that.« Eren laughed genuinely, wrapping his arm around Levi's slim waist. »Are you scared?«

The warm hand let Levi feel loved and home. »Scared of _that_ day? No, I'm not scared.«  
»But..?«  
»I- I know how this will end. I've never seen a destined couple that wasn't head over heels the second they saw each other.« Levi took a deep breath. »I'm not scared because I'm mentally preparing myself for that day.«  
  


The green eyes looked into the grey pair.   
He saw himself.  
  


»I wanna spend every free second with you.«  
»We barely have time... We're both busy with education, you're in school, I'm in college. And I got a part-time job.«  
»That's why.« Eren took a step to stand behind his boyfriend, wrapped his other arm firmly around the waist too, and let his soft lips ghost over the skin of Levi's neck.  
»Eren«, he heard the raven-haired boy whisper breathlessy as he began to color the pale skin purple; the brush warm and mellow like kitten's kisses.

»Do you think you can convince your mother that you are in good hands when you're with me?« Levi snuggled into Eren's hug. »I'd owe her one if she was so kind... Gonna cut the grass or do the laundry...«

Without stopping his way of showing affection, Eren took his phone out of the jeans' pocket, unlocked it. Then, he let his head rest onto Levi's shoulder.   
**»Can I stay at Levi's? The mood is great right now and I think I'm making friends! Pleeeeaaaaase <3 **  
**PS: Levi wants to weed the garden!!«**

After some tender kisses the phone recieved a message, ringed once.   
**»Okay, honey. But don't stay awake for too long!**  
 **PS: He can start tomorrow.«**

Once Levi had read these words, he grabbed Eren's hand, just pulled him along. They crossed the area of shisha, alcohol, make-up and party to be alone in Levi's room, to have some sexy time.

 

- **x** -

 

Eren still felt Levi's hot breath on his neck, his cool fingertips stroking his belly and his heart above his own.   
»Tired?«, he heard him murmur with a deep voice, coarse and sexy.   
»A bit. Why are you asking?« He played with a black strand of hair.

Levi then sat up slowly, almost hit his head due to the low height of the tent. Eren had almost pulled him back onto himself, but he realized the moment would have been over sooner or later, would have been just a picture.

The raven-haired boy had been rummaging around in his bag for a good minute before he found what he was searching for, a little box.   
Afterwards, he turned around to Eren again, grinning slightly to himself.  
»Hm? What?« Eren was curious to know what Levi was keeping to himself, but he would know what it was about after his boyfriend cleared his throat.

_»Willst du mit mir Drogen nehmen?_  
 _Dann wird es rote Rosen regnen_  
 _Ich hab's in einer Soap gesehen_  
 _Willst du mit mir Drogen nehmen?_  
 _Komm wir geh'n, Komm wir geh'n_  
 _Zusammen den Bach runter«_   
Levi's pronunciation wasn't the best, however Eren understood it anyway as he grew up with the language; he even recognized the song. It's [_Willst du_](https://youtu.be/Ahwc-ouFeTQ) by Alligatoah.

The box was opened subsequently.  
Inside there were three sachets; sachet #1 contained a white powder, sachet #2 was filled with green ›tabacco‹ and in sachet #3 there were two blue pills of which Eren thought they were vitamin V, but then he saw the little smiley on each of them.

»What are those?« Eren didn't know anything about drugs, he only knew heroin, hash and meth by name.  
»Coke, weed and ecstasy.«  
»No flour, gras and vitamin V?«

Levi wasn't able to stop himself from laughing quietly. »No, I'm pretty sure. What you see are actual drugs. So, wanna take drugs with me? It's gonna rain roses...«   
»Well, I have known you for a while and you probably have weed with you all the time... Let's take ecstasy«, Eren suggested and his love nodded, still seeming to be amused.  
»You don't _take_ ecstasy. You feel ecstasy, baby.«

Levi thought about it for a second. »Let's get dressed first. And don't worry about getting in danger. Farlan is in the tent next to us and has a light sleep. He'll wake up if we fool around.«

»Okay then.«

Eren had never expected Levi to offer him hard drugs. Secretly he had guessed that his boyfriend wanted to manipulate him, but he forgot that thought as soon as he saw the loving grey in Levi's face. It was more likely that he did it to make him feel happy.

The tent glowed bright orange and yellow, Levi's lips delicious pink and Eren's eyes rebellious green.   
The green floor's dew sparkled, the sunflower wall's yellow beamed, and the black ceiling's diamonds showed the way to Elysium.

Everything felt extreme to them, especially colors and emotions.  
The love, the luck, the happiness.  
However, everything was still relaxed, never frantic or stifling.

Levi was sitting on Eren's lap again, pushed his glasses further up on his nose, and grasped his lover's face. »You're beautiful.«  
Their lips became one, Levi's hands melted into Eren's cheeks; everything was a paradise on Earth.

They danced in the sunflower field, no shoes, no jacket, their own body betraying them.  
They felt warm, sweating due to heat they experienced but never existed; the chill night air cooling them down.

They were close, they were one.

The rain was a gift, the sunflowers an expression of their glee.

Their kiss was expressive, real - the experience impressionistic, blurry.

Levi's arms around Eren's neck. To be whirled around in the air.   
Laughing.

 

Their euphoria was an orgasm without sex.

 

-x-

  
  
»Bloody jam«, Levi cursed, sitting on the driver's seat and litting a cigarette. »We should have driven yesterday.«

»Take it easy, we're gonna arrive in time. We still have 4 hours left, right? And we need 2 hours to drive.« Eren tried to stay optimistic although the traffic tie-up was pretty dispiriting.  
»We haven't moved since 20 minutes ago. It is going to take forever. Serious car accident... Today, of all times.«

The raven-haired turned on the car radio, changed from hit songs to metal, to operah, to other stuff. »Which channel do you want to hear?«, Levi asked his boyfriend, pressing the cig in between his lips.  
»Hm... The one your mother listens to all the time.«  
»That 1980s one?«  
Eren nodded, smiling a little. »There's always the good stuff.«

Levi looked for the channel, hoped that there was enough reception for them to listen without parasitic noise.   
When he finally found it, the radio host was talking. »- now: _[ _Come on Eileen_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc-P8oDuS0Q)_ by Dexys Midnight Runners!«

The song seemed happy and perfect for a dance.   
Eren glanced over to his love that was smoking sexily - he had a thing for the way Levi held his cig and let the smoke travel through the air - and tapping to the rhythm with his foot.

»I can understand why people that weren't even born in the 1980s listen to that music from that decade.« Eren took Levi's free, cold hand in his own.  
»Crazy world«, the raven-haird male whispered huskily. »The world itself is weird. What if there was no timer? Would anybody fall in love with, you know, anybody?«

Green eyes watching the rose lips speak, Eren said, »Maybe we would be normal. We just found ourselves.«   
Considering that he had the privilege of not being a defect, of having a soulmate, he sounded perfectly happy while talking.

Seconds later it started to snow, not heavy but those were big flakes. And they weren't melting when they hit the ground. »Just great. Driving might be getting difficult.«

Eren still hold Levi's hand. "Wanna do something crazy?«  
»With you, always.«  
»Alrighty.«

The brunet boy left the car only to walk over to the driver's side of it, so Levi rolled the window down.  
»May I ask for a dance with you?« 

His boyfriend looked into Eren's green eyes, nodded, and let his cig fall lovelessy into the snow on the ground.   
Afterwards he also got out of the car, the white snow landing on his black head in perfect contrast.

Affectionately and warm, Eren grabbed his hand, closed the car door like a gentleman and pulled Levi onto the breakdown lane. He turned the music louder for them to hear loud enough, even outside in the cold wind.

They were holding hands - a pair close their body on one side, the other arms on the other side were strechted out - while listening and dancing to Come On Eileen.

It was a relatively fast rhythm, they were dancing vigorously, leaving a chaos of shoeprints behind.

The snow like white rose petals, the honking of a few cars in the background like applause, the light athmosphere like the spotlight in a theater.

They danced their own little dance on their own slippery stage for themselves, they were crazy and cheerful.

Soon, the song ended, but they continued to dance nevertheless.   
Eren's green eyes glowed in the white scenery, their feet growing cold and numb from being almost frozen, their hearts and hands as hot as ever.

»Madness belongs to every good romance«, Levi whispered, grinning with a corner of his mouth. The molten snow, the water drops, on his glasses were kind of annoying him, but he didn't let them bring him down.

»I love you«, Eren promised, suddenly close to his face, to Levi's blue lips. They kissed after his boyfriend answered.  
»I love you, too, idiot.«

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GER  
> »Willst du mit mir Drogen nehmen?   
> Dann wird es rote Rosen regnen  
> Ich hab's in einer Soap gesehen  
> Willst du mit mir Drogen nehmen?  
> Komm wir geh'n, Komm wir geh'n  
> Zusammen den Bach runter«  
> ENG  
> Do you want to take drugs with me?  
> It's going to be raining roses then  
> I've seen it in a docusoap  
> Do you want to take drugs with me?  
> Come, let's go, come, let's go  
> down the swanny together
> 
> I hope I could translate it correctly ^^"


	5. Five

The trees caught fire, the bark was dark, almost black, and the flames were already dancing on the grassy ground - colouring him in warm, burning hot shades red, orange and yellow.

The sky was gray; the smoke of september, solid like a wall of bricks in the rather small city.  
Maybe it wanted to leave the nature in the spotlight finally, to let the world undress the pretty dress of green and blue colours, to let the winter present  the pure beauty of Nudity.

Normally, Levi was nobody to rub his relationship into everbody's faces, but when he saw Eren again after a long time, he couldn't resist looping his arms around the bronzy neck, falling into his lover's arms.

His boyfriend set his arms around his hips, gently pressing his face into his shoulder, and inhaled Levi's natural scent, which was mixed with a fresh bit of lemon.

»Eren... I've missed you...«  
»I have missed you, too, Levi... Stay in my arms for a little longer.«

The grey eyes looked up, a thumb caressed the tanned cheeks lovingly, before Levi cleaned his glasses, as there had been fuzz due to Eren's shirt.

»Let's get inside. My roomie isn't here, so we're all alone.«

The college was huge, increased upwards when they draw nearer to the entrance.

The couple held hands, warmed their palms while the back of their hands cooled down.

In comparison to Eren's brown leather jacket, Levi's corduroy jacket seemed extremely warm and cosy.

By this time, the brunet boy had already realized that Levi owned and wore several masks.  
A mask, shown to him, his lover.  
Another mask, shown to his friends, his family.  
And the last mask, the mask he was showing himself, the mask for when he was alone, the mask when he wasn't feeling peachy.

Eren understood that Levi wasn't into talking about it at all. He was unapproachable when it came to being honest about his worries and thoughts.

Not always, but it started to become a habit, a thing of repetition.

He was afraid of his boyfriend slipping into a severe depression.

The walk through the dormitory was torture to Levi, agony, distress.

Admittedly, he was doing well, he didn't fear rejection as much as he had used to.  
But he was still sensitive.  
Although he was burying it deep, deep beneath the ground.

»Pfft, how long will it last?«  
»As soon as he meets his soulmate, he will leave Ackerman. LOL.«  
»Maybe that guy just wants a blow job. Desperation destroys people's inner worth. They become shadows of their former selves.

Eren had never understood how people recognized on the spot that Levi wasn't his destined lover.  
And not everybody on this world could know about Levi's presence as a _defect_.  
Or... could they?

Levi purposely avoided the eye contact to the others, he didn't need to see their thoughts written upon their faces.

Nevertheless, he couldn't suppress showing his middle finger before entering his room alongside Eren.

After closing the door, Levi shoved his boyfriend against the door, caging him in between his arms.  
And it was true, Levi was desperate. Eren tasted the sorrow as soon as his lips laid on his.

He eliminated the realisation soon, because he felt cold hands sliding up his stomache beneath his shirt, felt the autumn's warm-cold contrast.

Levi's head was so full and so empty at the same time, his only wish was rash and he wanted to fulfill it:  
Proving his dearly love to Eren.

The lack of affection and sex was the reason for it, making him feel guilty.

Was he an egoist for expecting Eren to put up with a long-distance relationship?

Levi didn't need to tell how much he loved him, because he was convinced Eren would feel how much he had missed him.

And so, the brunet boy looped his arms around Levi's pale neck, returned the kiss, hungry for love, for Levi.

Their bodies turned hot slowly, their little hearts throbbing forcefully against each other in their chests.  
They melted to become one, but Eren had other plans than to be a person which had 'despair sex', which was why he unlocked their lips.

»Babe, we might want to calm down a bit, right?«, Eren interposed.  
Levi reacted with a dismissive glare.  
»You don't wanna use this opportunity? My roomie won't come back for a while...«  
»I'm sure, Levi. At least for now. Who knows if you will seduce me later on«, Eren said grinning, before he kissed the pink, swollen lips in front of him and stripping of the brown corduroy jacket from his boyfriends shoulders.

Levi pulled his fingers reluctantly out of his shirt and offered: »Do you wanna drink something? I'm the proud owner of an electric kettle, tea bags and Sprite Zero.« He placed the jackets neatly on his roommate's bed, being the ›clean freak‹ he was.

»Tea sounds good. Lemon tea with milk?«  
His boyfriend nodded, preparing the delicious hot drink and a cup of black tea for himself. »Sugar?«  
»No, thank you.«

Little time later, they were sitting cuddled together on the bed and sipping their tea.  
»So... how's it going?«, Eren asked.

The question felt like the end, they both knew it.

The brunet boy had to see friendships die out way to often due to his several house movings.  
And in the end he would never know if they were strangers, acquaintances or still friends. Or still-friends.

Levi's throat felt constricted.  
»Pretty okay, I guess. Hard work pays off.«  
He grabbed Eren's hand, leaning onto him. »Don't let us talk about this. My professors all have shit up that far up their butt, their breath smells like a honey bucket.«

»Are they that bad?« Eren grinned a bit, kissing his lover's parting in the hair.  
»Yeah. There's only one pleasant person; he's living next door and a drag queen. Really nice. I went to a drag show with him one night. Rad.«  
Levi fingered his phone out, searching in his library for the photo of that night. »He wanted to do my make-up, but he hasn't found time yet. Studying informatics is hard.«

Eren layed an arm around his boyfriend's shoulders, smiling to himself over Levi opening more up again to him.

Then, the raven-haired boy closed his eyes, mindlessy caressing Eren's belly with his finger tips. »You know, I'm nobody for expressing emotions - especiall when I'm not high - but, my love, I really did miss you.«

Eren loved everything about it, Levi being all sappy, calling him ›my love‹. They had actually used these pet names ironically, but over the time they grew fond of them.

»I know, baby. You haven't been talking this much in a while, I could tell you missed me. It's not like you to give a speech.«

And then, there was silence filling the room.  
The clock ticked.  
Ever tick felt wasted, because every tick in quietness could have been better.

But maybe, they both didn't need anything else but tranquility - only calmness, peace and each other by their side.

»Mikasa and Jean have been together for quite a while now«, Eren suddenly said.  
Levi looked up to his boyfriend, thinking about it, and a nod followed. »He's head over heels in love with her.« His eyes turned cold. »Just like everybody else when they meet their soulmate...«

»Levi, don't start this conversation. You do know that we shouldn't even think about _that_.« Eren placed his cup on the nightstand before hugging his lover tightly.  
»You will meet him or her... and I'll be banned from your heart forever.«  
»You make it sound like it was my fault.«

»I'm blaming the world.«

 

-x-

 

»Happy Birthday, babe!«

The colourful, cylinder-shaped party hat on Levi's head let him seem like a kid, like an idiot, but Eren thought it was endearing.

»You really wanted to stay up till 12 pm so you could congratulate me for spending another year on this planet? I'm an old fart, Eren. I need some sleep.«  
»21? Old? You're of age now!«

Levi crawled on top of Eren, moving extremely slowly and making creaking noises. »I- I am old, E-Ern... I n-need... sleep...« He let himself flop and sighed in an exhausted manner when he landed.

»The only thing you will get is no-sleep.« Eren winked and, suddenly, Levi was young again.  
»Are you sure about that? We haven't done it in a while.«  
»100% sure.«

»But... can we sleep after that?«  
Eren laughed angelically.

 

-x-

 

The table was laid generously, the Jaeger's spared neither trouble nor expense.

Christmas Day was also celebrated in Germany and neither Grisha nor Carla were able to give up that aspect of their orginal culture.  
Luckily, they lived in a country in which Christmas was celebrated folksy.

The living room was huge and offered a transit to the dining room in which the candles shone, enlightening hearts.  
Next to the carmine, there stood the gigantic Christmas tree, which reminded Levi of his boyfriend's family's wealth.

Framed family photos were placed at the walls.  
In the latest picture, Eren, Armin and Mikasa were to be seen, but on older ones, in which baby Eren was held by his mother, his adopted siblings were missing.  
Additionally, Eren's great grandparents were photographed on the oldest one.

The family was mixed, Levi noticed.  
While Carla's parents and grandparents looked more Russo-German, Grisha's mother and grandfather seemed to be Mediterranean.  
Levi assumed they were Italian or Turkish, but he wasn't sure.

He found this to be really interesting as his family was downright American. At least as far as he knows about the Ackerman bloodline.

The fawn couch matched surprisingly well the dark brown, almost black laminate flooring, just as much as the cream carpet beneath the Christmas tree.  
Although the TV wasn't oversized, Levi sweared he would have been able to see every blade of grass on a football field - if he had been standing in the kitchen which was across the hallway, opposite of the living room.

To Levi it had been clear that Eren's family was rich - but not _that_ rich, especially with three kids to take care of.

But he had to admit that all three of them were already pretty independent, down-to-earth.

The greeting had been a bit frosty, because Eren's father was the one who had opened the door.  
And Mr. Jaeger was ›a bit‹ allergic to _defects_.

Especially when they were sleeping with his son.

Carla - actually Karla - was the exact opposite, she showed her sincere, heartfelt happiness when Levi entered the house. She even hugged him, probably because she was positive about his true intentions - his pure love for her son.

Plus, she befriended Kuchel.  
And to the couple, their friendship was heaven and hell at the same time.  
Conversations about their son's love life, sentences like »Yes, my son loved to swim naked in the pool, too!« and high-pitched, amused laughs definitely weren't a great rarity on Saturday afternoons.

Carla had expected Levi to be more experienced, but Kuchel denied that. And when Kenny set foot in the kitchen, Carla realized, why Levi wasn't as experienced as she had thought.  
»Good day«, he had grumbled, walking to the fridge, before taking out a milk Tetra Pak. Then, he drank out of it.

Eren looped his arms slowly around his boyfriend's waist, kissed his ear and grinned into the soft skin at Levi's neck. »Are you comfortable? It's cozy here, don't you think so?«  
»If there'd be an opposite of claustrophobia, it would be what I'm experiencing right now.«

»Hey, you lovebirds, come sit at the table. Dinner is ready!« Mrs. Jaeger beckoned the boys over, everyone except for them was already sitting.

Mr. and Mrs. Jaeger were seated at the ends of the table, on one side of the table, Armin, Eren and Levi were sitting, facing Jean and Mikasa.

Grisha had a conversation going with Jean, wearing an interested smile, but when he looked at Levi, that smile wrinkeld into a rather rude facial expression.  
Plus, he felt his disgust, his rejection.

Just because Levi and Eren weren't soulmates.

»Jean, would you like to have some roast meat, too?«  
»Yes. Thank you, Mr. Jaeger.«  
»Stop calling me ›Mr. Jaeger‹, it makes me feel old. Call me by my first name.«

Levi gulped down his anxiety, wanted to have some mashed potatoes which were placed by the family of the family. »Mr. Jaeger, would you be so kind and hand me the bowl of mashed-«  
»You have eaten enough already. And you won't grow anymore.«

Levi balled a fist beneath the table's top.  
For the first time he envied a friend and his relationship seriously.

With affection and care, Eren cupped his boyfriend's fist with his hand, opened it slowly to reach the centre, to create a loving unit.  
Then, he placed their hands on the table's surface and all Levi could think about that all of this scene was a joke, that it all seemed like a metaphor.

Only the best was presented to degrade oneself and to change oneself to please another individual.

Levi hated this falsehood, the lies.  
The family's voices were shooting through his head; entering one ear, leaving through the other one.

And still, his head felt so loud, it might as well could explode right then and there, creating an endless silence, leaving him in pieces which would be cleaned up afterwards.

Maybe something will grow out of his human remains when planet Earth burns down.

»Honey, how about we pray by the Christmas tree!«, Carla suggested excitedly, after Jean told stories from his childhood when his sister hadn't been born yet.

Levi tasted Grisha's thoughts about holding the hand of a _defect_ like salt mixed in tea.  
Meanwhile his friend Jean seemed to noticed Grisha's turndown like arsenic mixed in wine.

Not at all.

Originally, Christmas was planned to be a good day, a peaceful and joyful memory.  
Levi prepared himself for that day.  
His anxiety lowered itself on an acceptable level, making this whole ordeal bearable - and he had refused to smoke weed before to calm his nerves!

He would have never expected to recieve a gift from Eren's parents, but of course his inner childish self was grinning like crazy.  
»Thank you very much, Mr. and Mrs. Jaeger«, Levi expressed his graditude politely, but he failed at the attempt of a nice smile.

He unwrapped the thin package, revealing an envelope. It contained 20$ and a flyer.  
A flyer for a free group meeting.  
A meeting about AIDS prevention.

Is that how Eren's parents expressed their love and worries?

»Wow... thanks...«, Levi forced politely out and harrumphed.  
»What is that? A flyer? Grisha?« Carla took the blue piece of paper, read it to herself quietly. »Honey, what is the meaning of this?«

»Well, they both are male. You know, I'm not homophobic, you know, but the transmissions of STDs, especially HIV, have gone up in the last few years«, Grisha defended his brainless action.  
»This is unacceptable!«, Carla argued clearly upset.

Levi was just sitting there, locked himself down and sank deeper into the couch's soft pillows.  
So Eren layed his arms around his boyfriend, however, he refused to speak. He would wait for Levi's permission.

»Mr. Jaeger, if you hate me, tell it to me straight. Into the face. Not behind my back or with this dumb shit. I can't stand this guileful jabbering. Is the reason for your disrespectful behaviour me being a _defect_?«

Thundercloud met honey.

»Yes. You are not human.«

The raven haired boy stood up, feeling like a parasite. »Then I'm glad I'm not part of your kind. It's gotta be boring as fuck having a perfect relationship without any problems. You gotta be tired of this whole over the the moon and weary love.«

Eren grabbed his lover's hand, standing up and reassuring him. »Levi, we're leaving.«  
For a second, the brunet boy looked into his mother's eyes, but averted her gaze quickly after that.

Everybody was speechless, so you could hear Eren whisper »I'm so sorry« lowly.

 

-x-

 

»You know, I'm happy it's out. Your father acted like a son of a bitch towards me.«

Eren looped an arm around Levi, they were walking on the pavement and listening to the cricket's evening song.

»My uncle used to bullshit me«, the shorter boy suddenly said, finally feeling as big as he actually was. »He told me that Asian folks were called ›yellow‹ because their drinking water had been the same water they had flushed down the toilet.«

Eren's laugh was loud and sincere, although he worried that Kenny was racist. »And? Did you believe him?«  
»Of course I had. I believed him everything he said. After all, he was my uncle. He had been my hero. It used to be so... nice, back then.«

They both took a trip down memory lane.

»Also, Kenny told me that dark-skinned people had dark skin because their house had been engulfed in flames. I, fully trusting my uncle, told that explanation in school to show how smart I was. That was the first time my mom was called in.«

»Are you serious?!« Eren beamed with warmth and love, which wanted to be grasped by Levi.  
»Just ask my mom. She had to convince the direx that, no, Kenny and her aren't in fact racists, and that, yes, they take care of me.«

Soon, they came across a playground which was watched over by a single lighted street lamp.  
Slides, climbing contraption, swings, seesaws, sandbox - the full monty.

»You got the same thought?«  
»Smoking some weed on the swings?« Eren's dorky grin remained while Levi boxed him gently.  
»Never get high outside when it's freezing cold. If you sleep in, you're one dead pot-head.«

Nevertheless, he grabbed Eren's hand, pulled him to the climbing contraption which looked like a castle, and looked for the secret entrance. The castle itself was hollow so you could get inside if you dug deep enough into the sand ground.  
Levi had discovered this little ›secret‹ when he had been 12 years old.

A few minutes later, they both were inside the castle.  
Eren was surprised and happy. He felt like a child again, playing Knight and Dragon which Armin, Mikasa and him used to play often in their childhood.  
The nostalgia hugged him thightly, feeling comfortable instantly.

»This would be a great place to deal with drugs, I imagine. Or to fuck«, the brunet boy informed his lover with a cheeky grin.

Sitting on the ground, Levi guided Eren down to take place next to him. »Of course, babe, because it wouldn't  be suspect and eye-catching when two people crawl into this wooden thing for kids through a tunnel of sand.«  
After that, he decided he wanted to be closer to his love, which was why he lifted Eren slowly for him to sit on his lap.

They were close to each other, nose touching nose, the gray pair of eyes never leaving the green ones.

»... Thanks, my love.«

Eren shoved Levi's glasses gently up on the back of his nose with his own point of the nose before grinning his idiotic smile and kissing the raven-haired boy tenderly. »I don't give a fuck what my father thinks about you. I love who I love. And nothing will ever be able to change that.«

»Which means that you will accompany when I'll be attending the AIDS prevention group meeting?«, Levi asked with a slight, playful smile, kissing Eren's jaw-line.

»I'll do everything my prince commands me to do.« Eren let himself fall onto Levi's body, starting a passionate make-out session in the sand while heating up one another.

 

-x-

 

Truly, it was a mystery.  
How was love able to turn you into a ball of energy, to make you inexpressible happy?

How could the presence of another human being influent your body in such a way? - Hormones, high pulse, sweating, blushing.

Almost as if love was an illness to which you and your body have to react.  
A foreign object.  
Something your body hugged and fought against.

Like a drug.

Love was addictive.

This realisation hit the couple hard.

They fell into an ecstasy; almost everytime they met up, they looked for a place where they could show their love to each other really.

Levi misused Eren's chest as a pillow and breathed heavily against the naked, sweaty skin before kissing it softly.

They were speechless.

One of Eren's hands wandered through the black mess growing on his boyfriend's head, the other one massaged the sore back, all the while witnessing Levi stealing some of his body heat, holding him close.

They matched like a puzzle of two pieces.

They had searched and found.

The silence was pleasant and entangling, relaxing and insidious.

Breathing noises calmed down, grew more constant.

Hearts beat more slowly.

Clocks ticking louder.

The dread in the shadows under the bed.

Waiting and ready.

Both of them knew that, so they stayed in the fairy lights' colourful rays.

»There's something I've wanted to show you for a lil while now«, Levi recollected out loud, broke away from his boyfriend reluctantly.

He walked towards his bag, looking for something inside it. Meanwhile, Eren was busy with staring at Levi's naked body in a loving and longing manner.

»You once told me you find serenades to be romantic«, Levi mumbled lowly, taking a rather small, wooden instrument with thin metal plates.  
»I may not be able to sing without scaring the neighbour's cat, but I can play your personal fairy tale.«

Clearing his throat, Levi put on his glasses and checking the tunes once again. After taking place by his lover's  side, he started to play.

It was a magical melody. Eren knew it for sure.  
The song sounded dreamy, loving and topmost soothing.  
Just like a fairy tale.

»Wait a second... Babe, is this from _Shrek_?«, Eren asked with a chuckle, but Levi concentrated on his thumbs.

The serious gaze fixed on the wooden instrument baffled the brunet boy. It was more beautiful and especially more romantic than the actual serenade.

Because Levi was trying (very) hard - to please Eren.

He was thinking about his father, who wasn't seeing this potential, this love, this veracity in Levi.  
Eren was sending Grisha to hell for his blindness while hugging his love thightly from behind, making the thumbs stop playing.

»I love you, Levi Ackerman.«

»And I love you, Eren Jaeger.«

»You may not be my

soulmate, but

this love is real. And

there is nothing

on Earth

that would make me

reconsider my decision.«

Levi sighed deeply, his posture slacking. »When I'm with you I can be the person I truly am. You fulfill me, Eren.«

»Who needs stars when you find true love?«

Emeralds flashed rough diamonds.

 

-x-

 

After the rains, there comes the drought.  
Valley follows mountain.  
The moon chases the sun.

Yet the sun was nothing more than a star.

And just like every other flower, this rose withered.

 

-x-

 

They all were sitting together in the local pub.

The group, a big circle of friends with smaller circles in it, was reunited.

Armin, sitting between Mikasa and Eren, sipped his Mojito.  
Jean who made himself comfortable next to his lovely girlfriend was kissing her through the eyes while Isabel, Farlan and Hanji were discussing about corgis.  
Levi sat between his boyfriend and Farlan, between being chilled and being a nervous wreck, between love and fear.

Mikasa was dressed up in her thight leather dress and a denim jacket, Isabel wore her ›nice blouse‹ and Hanji managed to put on a decent pair of pants - a mom jeans!  
Armin and Jean stayed with a casual style of clothing, Farlan decided for grandpa pants and a pair of suspenders.

The pub was a basement pub, still very vintage. There were wood panels at the wall, leather covers for almost every kind of seating furniture. But the colorful string of lights and the illuminated bar spoke a newer language. Still not that modern, but better than fully old-fashioned.

Nevertheless, the jukebox was pretty cool.

The group's conversations were a mess, every which way, but Levi was sitting still.  
He felt isolated. It had never been this bad.

It would take a few weeks, then none of this would ever be able to happen again, at least the way it had used to be.

Because one person would be missing, then probably two more, maybe even three if Jean wouldn't be able to stop eye-fucking his girlfriend (very tenderly tho) in public.

None of the droge Levi had ever used had been as intoxicating and addictive as Eren.

He stared at his boyfriend through the round glasses, everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

His wish was to turn back the clock, to travel back in time.  
To experience this relationship, their conversations, their love, _Eren_ all over.

Was is selfish wanting to have him all for himself?  
Wishing that Eren was happy thanks to him? Thanks to him only?

Question hammering in his head, longing for attention and answers.  
Levi tried his best to ignore the bad, doubtful thoughts, after all, he should have fun.

Excusing himself, he dug his way through the mass of blury customers.

Levi felt drunken, when he stared into the mirror only to see his reflection.  
»Did someone mix in roofies or what?«

For him, short seconds passed, for his friends, long minutes passed.

At some point, Isabel stood up, walked over to the men's bathroom and knocked loudly. »Levi?«, she asked and the response was a gagging noise. Levi was throwing up.

Knowing that her best friend stayed sober as he wanted to drive Eren and his siblings home, she caught Farlan's eye - very startled to say the least - and beckoned him over.

The ash-blond boy entered the bathroom, making his way to Levi who was busy hugging the toilet. »Hey, I'm here«, Farlan informed him and patted his back.

Levi let himself fall onto his butt and leaned against the seperating wall, before realizing he touched the nasty bathroom floor more than he would have ever liked to.

»I thought ya wanted to stay sober for yo babe?«  
»Yeah, I did, too... I'm not feeling well... There's gotta be something off, I only drank coke.«

So Farlan sat down facing Levi, they both moved their legs close to their body.  
»So, you think somebody mixed some drug in?«, the blond boy asked in a serious tone.  
»No, I would have noticed that. Maybe I'm just getting sick. Or something's wrong with me.«  
»Let's just hope it's the flu. It would be better if yo boyfriend walked ya home, huh? Not that there'll be more drama.«

Levi agreed, watching Farlan standing up and stretching his hand out for him.  
He helped him up, patting his shoulder. »Hey... If this is about Eren, ya know where I am, okay?«

So they returned to their friends, the black-haired boy took his jacket and made eye contact with Eren.  
»What's the matter?«, he asked worried. Usually, Levi, Jean and Hanji left last.  
»I'm not feeling well. Care to escort your boyfriend home and pamper him there?«  
A grin and a nod affirmed the request.

During getting ready to leave and paying the bill for the two of them, they also said good bye to their friends, already missing them.

Eren looped an arm around Levi, pulling him closer, and frequently glanced over to him. »Did something happen in the bathroom? You didn't drink alcohol at all.«  
Levi put him off. »It's nothing. Maybe the drugs I've collected over the past years are forming to a super drug which will make me high 24/7.« He continued to stare to the ground.

Suddenly, he stopped walking under a street lamp.  
  
Eren spoke up. »Are we heading south?«

There was no answer.

»I love you. I really do.«  
»I love you, too, Eren. That's why it hurts so much.«

So the brunet boy hugged his boyfriend who once again showed his soft, vulnerable mask. Which meant it bothered Levi more than he had imagined.

His chin on the black, hairy mess, the warm puffs tickling his chest, the slight ache in his legs due to standing a bit on his tiptoes - after all, he wasn't a little boy anymore.

»Do you wanna end it? Here and now?«

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally a new chapter!  
> I'm sorry for the long wait, I was and am busy with school rn (Abitur!!).
> 
> I hope you liked the chapter. The next one is the last one, probably.
> 
> If there are reoccuring errors, don't be afraid of telling me (pls ;; I wrote and edited this after 12am)
> 
> Comments and Kudos are always appreciated <3


	6. Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter, but there is a After Ending!!  
> It was a long, exhausting and exciting journey to finish my first English multi-chaptered work ;u;  
> I hope y'all enjoy it!

 

The answer came directly, on the spot.  
The answer delivered was explicit, sure.

»No.«

Levi took a deep breath, Eren's natural scent in his nose, and shook his head. »It will be painful. Because the end will draw nearer.«  
His pale hands stroked the tan cheeks, thumbs were playing with the pink pillows and determined eyes were starring into Eren's soul.  
»I love you. And we will spend every second together, if it is possible. We made that promise some time ago. We can't forget it.«  
The grey had never been this serious before, had never been this daunting.

»Okay. If that's your wish, my love, I won't make an objection to realizing it.« Eren sighed contently, because he would have died if he had had to let Levi go.

And that was when he noticed how selfish love actually was.

Eren held his boyfriend tightly in his arms while the street lamp gifted them with light and some security.  
»Let's continue walking. I have to care for you, babe.«

Tenderly and teasingly, Levi rubbed his boyfriend's reddish cheeks. »Oh, I'm gonna be cared for, huh?«

The brunet boy's face fell. »Right, what did actually happen in the bar?«  
»Honestly, I don't know. I suppose I'm becoming sick. If somebody had mixed a drug in my drink, I would have noticed for sure.« His boyfriend shrugged and kissed him.

Then they proceeded to walk home, hand in hand and heart by heart.

Arriving at the Ackerman's, Levi opened the door quietly, sneaked upstairs alongside Eren and closed his door between reality and dream after entering his room, his safe haven, his own, little galaxy.

»Also, Eren, there's something I should have admitted way sooner«, Levi mumbled, playing around with his stereo equipment and switching on the fairy lights at the walls.

»Oh no, don't tell me you have cancer! Is this one of _those_ romances?« Eren's face showed pure panic and his hands were grabbing onto his hair.

»What!? No! It's nothing like that, really, baby.«  
»Oh! So you really did pop that pimple on your ass cheek without filming it! I feel beyond betrayed!« Now, Eren looked mad.

Levi pulled a transparent, used CD cover out from the huge stack and handed it over to Eren who read song titles on the reflecting disc.  
›1. Sky Full of Stars  
2\. Fix You  
3\. The Scientist  
4\. Viva La Vida  
5\. Paradise  
6\. Chasing Cars  
7\. The Lightning Strike‹

»Coldplay? Snow Patrol? Geez, Levi, you listen to songs from the 2000s?« And now, Eren was utterly surprised. Relieved, but still very surprised. »I didn't know this side of you.«  
»Well, you see, I'm full of secrets, babe.«  
»Are you gonna sing me a song, too? Snow by Red Hot Chili Peppers?«, his boyfriend teased with a dorky smile.

Levi shook his head, skipped through the songs on the CD in the stereo. »What about Richard Orofino? No, wait. [This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8inJtTG_DuU) one's perfect.«  
Soft tunes filled the room.

_»In the morning when I wake_  
_And the sun is coming through_  
_Oh you fill my lungs with sweetness_  
_And you fill my head with you_

_Shall I write it in a letter?_  
_Shall I try to get it down?_  
_Oh you fill my head with pieces_  
_Of a song I can't get out_

_Can I be close to you?_  
_Can I be close to you?«_

The raven-haired boy took his partner's hands, pulled him to the bed and undressed him there slowly.

Eren didn't even think about stopping him, but he questioned his actions. »What are you doing, my dear?«  
»I'm about to commit a crime. Theft. 'M gonna steal your body warmth while you're busy showering my body with kisses«, Levi explained to which Eren reacted with a blessed smile.  
»It's not theft if I give you my permission.«  
»Even better.«

The two lovers were lying in the bed, almost entirely bare, when they shared their love to double it.

They attracted each other like magnets, they couldn't seperate their bodies.  
Their skin touching felt like pure bliss, their lips were melted together as well as their bodies.

They became one, this time without sex, as they were gifting each othere sincere affection and never gave lust any space that evening because it seemed to be taking over their relationship.  
Both partners felt and tried to fight it.

Love - Eros, Agape, Philia.

Three words, three elements, which belonged to love, which were also the love itself.

The couple didn't care for such sayings - the poesy only was up to their liking.

Which was why they didn't want to  appreciate the drama.

After all, who wanted to experience a bad ending themself?

 

- **x** -

 

The time has come.

 

_00:00:00:00:59:59_

 

The ticking grew louder in Eren's ears while he was sitting on the sofa with Levi.

Every second passed more slowly, his puls sped up and his body experienced waves of nervousity.

He inhaled deeply, feeling like he couldn't breathe enough oxygen.

Is that what it feels like when you're about to meet the love of your life?

Was he even ready?

Did he even want to be ready for it?

Eren had been torturing himself with these questions for a while now. He saw Levi as his love, but of course he was curious about how this other love would feel like.

Would it be like this ›love at first sight‹ which you could read about in old books?

Questions upon questions, yet he couldn't find the answer to any of them.

Levi's eyes were closed, his weight felt as good as always on his own body; they way it weighed on his chest.

This heaviness was one of the most pleasant feelings Eren had ever got to know as it meant trust - Eren was his shore, a bastion of calm, his support, literally as well as metaphorically.  
He entrusted him, a privilege.

More than enough comfort was provided by the Ackermans' small living room.  
Admittedly, Eren was used to more expensive furtniture, but he couldn't not fall in with the patchwork sofa.

Sometimes Levi would move around in his boyfriend's arms, he seemed to be fallen asleep.  
Okay- it was late to Levi, about 10:20 pm, plus he had watched _Beverly Hills Cop 2_ 3 times already thanks to Eren, without ever having seen the prequel.

The brunet boy was an absolute fan of the movie, it was a classic.  
His love had other interests, movies more like _Fight Club_ and _IT_ \- although he didn't look like he'd watch movies like that at all - and older series like _The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air_ and _Home Improvement_.

Long fingers brushed black hair, stroking a soft chin and a beating chest.  
»Mhhhmmm...«, Levi murmured and Eren kissed his parting.  
»Mhhhmmm«, he mimicked him, smelling the scent of his lover's shampoo. It was a fresh lemon odour, meaning that Levi probably had dandruffs again.

Eren would definitely miss this.  
These scenes, this love, this affection, everything.  
... right?

 

_00:00:00:00:47:13_

 

Moments like this had become rare.  
They hadn't found much time for each other as Eren had to concentrate more school while Levi did the same for college.

That's why they had ›sex dates‹; to show one another they greatest amount of love in the shortest amount of time, or rather in the short free time they could spend together.

But they had completely forget the aspect of affection, of polished, cut love because rough love could work like a drug.

Eren wasn't able to imagine a life without Levi by his side, as he had become a part of him.

Did he have to meet his soulmate?  
He was perfectly happy with his current partner.

Levi had insisted that they would spend this evening together, watching a movie or doing whatever.  
He even bothered to shoo Kuchel and Kenny out of the house with paying for a ›swim at night‹ at the nearest indoor pool, massage inclusive.

Nevertheless, he couldn't admit that he did all that to have Eren all for himself.  
After all, who would visit the Ackermans after 10pm?

Exactly. Nobody.

He wanted to outwit this foolish fate.

Maybe, just maybe, love was the most powerful force.

 

_00:00:00:00:41:29_

 

Levi wondered what was going on inside Eren's head.  
Asked himself whether he was excited, sorrowful or fuming.  
Questioned if Eren was just as affected as he was.

The raven-haired boy was creating a farewell, a short speech, but in the end, when he couldn't think of whole sentences, he decided that it'd be to sappy.  
Additionally, it would be all the same to Eren, his boyfriend, his still-boyfriend, his soon-to-be ex-boyfriend.

Future **ex** -boyfriend.

These words unleashed a severe pressure in Levi's head which also caused his fingers to claw in a clingy manner on his love's shirt.

The white, soft material smelled of Eren, it was his haze.

»Hey, hot stuff«, Eren whispered against the pale forehead when gray eyes caught sight of green ones. »Did you have a good sleep?«

»I did not sleep... I was thinking.«

Eren raked his fingers through the dark hair and kissed Levi back whose lips were pressed against the other pair.  
»You shouldn't think. It's way too late for that«, he schooled him, but Levi didn't know what Eren referred to when he said ›too late‹.  
To the time? To their relationship?

Levi answered with a deep, yet quiet sigh. »I know, babe.«

 

_00:00:00:00:39:46_

 

»You feel so cold. Come closer into my chest, let me hug you.«  
Eren just pulled his boyfriend onto his lap, layed a blanket around him and embraced him with his own body.  
»My own, portable heater. Eren 0330«, Levi teased with a tender, almost unnoticable grin which had grown rare over the past months.

»I'm nothing more than a source of warmth to you? Baby!«, Eren replied with a dreamy smile, still sounding upset - well played -, while his fingers danced a waltz underneath the fabric of Levi's yellow sweatshirt.

He loved that top being worn by boyfriend; it was a warm yellow and beautiful sunflower made of yarn had been embroidered on the sleeves.

It was probably a woman's shirt actually since there was a lot of fabric on the front, but Levi had never paid attention to clothes' gender.  
His style was simple - he bought what he liked. End of story.

Just like with Eren and love.  
There was nothing to add.

They were in love.

 

_00:00:00:00:37:02_

 

»You know, Eren«, Levi started and took the sun-kissed face between his hands.  
However he wasn't capable of finishing the sentence.

And Eren gifted him the attention which Levi regretted and loved to get from his partner.  
He didn't pushed him to speak, he let him have his time.  
And even if it would take a whole forever and a half one until Levi decided against talking.

»I love you, too«, Eren promised then, feeling Levi's inner conflict.  
He wasn't feeling any different.

Yet they both wondered how long Eren's statement would stay true for.

They knew the answer but didn't dare to speak it out loud, let alone think about it.

»We should go to bed, eh? You're tired. And we still can spend the rest of the time together.« Eren kissed Levi's temple lovingly, nosed his hair line and rubbed his thumb over the pale back.

Levi knew that something would have to happen.  
Somebody would come to this house, ring the bell and be there. Be it a pizza delivery boy at the wrong adress or a burglar.

And Eren didn't seem to be one of those people whose actions would affect their fate, their _timer_.

 

_00:00:00:00:30:00_

 

Both of them were now in Levi's room after Eren had carried his boyfriend upstairs who commented »wimp« teasingly and affectionately when there were two little pauses to catch a breath or two.  
The hassle was paying off; Levi gave the brunet boy an alluring kiss that promised more.

Just when they were putting on their sleeping clothes, there was a loud honking to be heard until the doorbell suddenly rang.

 

_00:00:00:00:27:14_

 

»Fuck me, not those rowdies again. I'm gonna teach them a lesson«, Levi said as he grabbed a baseball bat.  
He went downstairs, wearing his yellow flower sweatshirt and some butt-hugging underwear, while Eren followed close behind.

The stairs creaked beneath their feet and Levi's grip on the wooden weapon was tight.  
Eren's upper body was revealed as he wore only long pyjama strides, but he was just as ready as his boyfriend was.

Pale fingers grabbed the door handle, resting a second, before the door was yanked open.

However, there were no rowdies or kids who thought that ding-dong-ditch was cool.

Standing there was Eren's father Grisha who flinched when his eyes caught sight of a risen baseball bat.

He looked kind of pathetic in that second, fear in his eyes, wearing an ugly pyjama and a dressing gown.  
If he had to be honest, Levi was pleased with the sight because Grisha really had been a dick to him.

»Papa!?«, Eren asked and Levi's arms sank to his sides, but he kept holding the bat.

»Eren, we have to go. Your Mama, she's in hospital. There was a car accident.« Grisha's eye sockets were filled with shock, pure panic.

 

_00:00:00:00:26:36_

_00:00:00:00:26:35_

_00:00:00:00:26:34_

 

The seconds passed Levi, Grisha's words stood for the end.

Eren swallowed thickly. His father would never have come, especially at that time of the day - or rather time of the night -, and in pyjamas, if it hadn't been serious.

»Mikasa is waiting in the car, come on!« Grisha took hold of his son's hand.

And green eyes met grey fear and void.  
The brunet boy knew exactly what Levi was thinking.

»You're coming with us?«, Eren asked and his boyfriend needed a few heartbeats until he finally nodded.  
»We made the promise.«

They put on their shoes, Eren took his jacket from the hook and then they were sitting in the car not a minute later.

Mikasa had seated herself in the front, next to her father.  
She greeted the boys briefly and seemed to be just as afraid as Grisha was as her posture wasn't confident as otherwise customary.  
Maybe it was because she had already lost her parents once.

 

_00:00:00:00:25:00_

 

Levi starred at their intertwined finger's, Eren was sitting on the left backseat which was why he could see his timer perfectly.  
Every second hurt more than the previous one did, the end drew near - he couldn't picture his life without Eren.  
Death appeared to be a nicer pain than his love's absence by his side.

 

_00:00:00:00:23:12_

 

No more of those heartfelt hugs, when Levi had to stand on his tiptoes in order to bury his face in the crook of Eren's neck.

 

_00:00:00:00:23:10_

 

No more of that idiotic grin at his nape when he woke up when morning came, while rays of sunshine shone through the half-transparent curtains to light up his pale face.

 

_00:00:00:00:23:08_

 

No more laying with Eren in his garden to watch the stars or in Levi's old treehouse and drawing their own heaven's tent with a half-empty Sharpie on the wooden ceiling. 

 

_00:00:00:00:23:06_

 

Levi squeezed the soft hand delicately and didn't tear his gaze away from the black digits, as if a wonder would happen by staring.

He felt a tender, _good_ pressure and exhaled a needy breath he didn't know he had kept inside his lungs so long.

Eren, on the other hand, seemed to breathe more quiekly and more deeply, but he even himself didn't know why.  
Usually, the brunet's heart wasn't racing _this_ much when he was nervous, and Levi's presence wasn't the reason either for a change.

 

- **x** -

 

And

  
                     

       slowly they                                                   

  
                                                                fell

  
                                                                                                         at first

  
           one then

  
                     two and three

 

- **x** -

 

_00:00:00:00:20:00_

 

Levi felt apathetic, almost dead.  
Everything was passing him, time, memories, the dumb plans that would never have experienced even a slight touch of reality.

The light's of the city's glittering nightlife, of the traffic lights, of the cars; everything was a hazy blurr and suddenly he was close to throwing up.

Now Levi was breathing way too quickly, too, the belt suffocated him and he needed a cigarette or oxygen.

Eren was about to leave him, to forget him and to never see him again.  
Maybe he would think of Levi as off-putting - who would like to hang out with the person that sucked one's dick after starting a new relationship with somebody else?

The brunet boy might even make fun of him, might convince all of his friends to distance themselves from this stupid, naive, foolish Levi.

He was close to collapsing now, his throat blocking everything off. His fingernails were crawling the seat cover, it was soft and worn out from use which didn't fit the overall look of the car - expenisve, luxurious. They could buy new covers anytime.

And then he felt the pressure again, it felt like pulse on a dead body; he was revived.  
Levi was still sitting in the car, Eren next to him and holding his hand.

All of his frights meant nothing, they were unrealistic. If Eren was the person he feared him to be, he wouldn't have fallen in love with him so much.

Despite all the time they spent together, he had never understood what Eren liked about him.  
Levi was neither attractive nor extraordinarily bright.  
His humour was weird, he could be a sarcastic asshole at times if someone dared to provoke him.

Of course, the raven-haired boy said sorry afterwards, normally with a clumsy gesture or an awkward statement.

Additionally, he was a closed book, so seeming like a frigid jerk was a daily business to be dealt with.

Levi wasn't a nobody, he was a nothing.  
A defect.

Meanwhile Eren was still wondering what character traits his soulmate would have. Secretly he hoped that they would resemble his current love, on the contraty he hoped they would be the extreme opposite.  
It would be easy to seperate himself from Levi.

What if he would lose his mother then and there?  
Eren didn't know if he could endure that pain without Levi - or at least someone like Levi.

 

_00:00:00:00:07:00_

 

As soon as Grisha had parked thecar, the Jaegers were on their feet, not wanting to waste any second while Levi felt like a burden- no, while Levi was a burden as he followed them rather slowly, but close behind.

The hospital was huge and ovetopped the surrounding buildings.

Fresh and cool was the night's air, it wandered through Levi's thin pyjama pants that he had quickly thrown on his lower body and let him freeze now although he wore a rather heavy sweater.

It reeked of hospital in there - the oppressive and stale smell of illness, lots of people and hospital food.

He had not even been there for two seconds and Levi already hated to be there since perceived 100 people were staring at the small family and ›the guy alongside them‹.

The Jaegers didn't mind that though, they were busy with hurrying to the woman sitting behind a sheet of glass, inside a cabin that reminded of a box office at a cinema.

»Carla Jaeger, where is she?«, Grisha asked, keeping his children close by, and Levi arrived next to them.  
His hand found Eren's, squeezed it affectionately and wanted to express sympathy.

»May I know who is asking, please?«, the woman retorted polietly, smiling kindly and nervously. »I can't give those infortmations the first that comes along.«

Eren was shaking. »Do we look like strangers? Do we look like we don't care?«

»Eh...« The answer definitely surprised her. »I'm so sorry, I-I'm new here, this is my first night shift... She's probably the family's mother?«

The Jaegers nodded eagerly, Grisha pulled Mikasa closer and kissed her head while the keyboard was being typed on, while the computer was being interrogated.

Every clicking sound if the keyboard made Eren more anxious, all those seconds were wasted seconds.

Levi felt so, so guilty; he only thought about Eren and their relationship.  
Carla was probably at death's mercy, only just surviving. She had always been so kind, warm and open-hearted when they got to know each other more than just »Hi, Mrs Jaeger, I'm Mr Nice Guy, Eren's boyfriend«, »Yeah, Mama, he's really nice« or whatever.

Finally, the wanted infortmation was available. »Carla Jaeger, intensive care unit, floor 3, room 347.«

Eren almost _ran_ , almost leaving Levi behind.

»Have a good evening!«, the woman exlaimed with a geniune smile, but the joy fell on deaf ears.

And after that they stood in the mass of people, the lift was highly coveted.  
The next stairwell was closed as there was a contrustion zone, the stairs were age-worn and unstable.

The silvern door opened, a silky _bing_ sounded.

A nurse and a doctor pushed a hospital bed out, the patient on the green matress looked deathly ill, which was why several people shrank away from said bed.

Before the Jaegers had the opportunity to enter the elevator, enough patients, family members and nurses filled it fully.

Another _bing_ ringed in their ears, the doors closed.

Eren pressed Levi's mellow palm against his own, his entire body quivered. »Everything will turn out alright.«  
»Your Ma is a strong woman. She succeeded in thrusting your big ass head out of between her legs, so she will be doing well after this, too«, Levi reassured with a kiss on the cheek to cheer his love up.  
Eren chluckled quietly and only for a second, but he did smile.

They waited and it felt like an eternity.  
The last infinite time the couple was gifted.

Levi glanced at Eren's forearm, the black digits showing numbers getting smaller. 

 

_00:00:00:00:01:49_

 

109 seconds.  
108 seconds.  
107 seconds.

_Bing!_

The other lift's door opened, the Jaegers finally entered and pushed the button to be transported to the 3rd floor.

Levi stayed in the back of the little space to make room for the eldery who followed them inside.

And when the door closed again, the air supply seemed to be insufficient because Eren and his boyfried had trouble breathing normally.

Althought Levi's reasons for feeling sufficating were the amount people, the density, and his constant accompanist anxiety while Eren's choking was accounted for by the immense nervousity.

The elevator's music didn't change Levi's tension either, maybe even worse as he gripped his boyfriends smooth hand almost tightly enough to make them melt together.

Digital numbers revealed the current floor they were at.

E... +1... +2... +3...

_Bing!_

 

00:00:00:00:00:15

 

The old people weren't getting of the lift so Grisha requested politely that they should make room for the four of them to exit.

They squeezed themselves through the crowd, Eren at first, leaving Levi behind.

 

_00:00:00:00:00:05_

 

Levi wanted to follow them, but the door already closed on him. For a second he had lost sight of his boyfriend.  
Immediately his fingers pushed the button to open the metallic doors. 

 

_00:00:00:00:00:00_

 

And there they stood, at the end of the hallway.

Eren, big eyes, slightly parted lips, stiff.

A young woman, 19 or 20 years old, was facing him.

Ash blond, voluminous ponytail.  
Sunkissed skin, freckles.  
Light blue shirt, white pants, sneakers.

The name tag hanging from her breast pocket, she was a nurse.

Sparks, everywhere. There were stars in her dark brown eyes, they were shining bright. Eren's were no different.

Both of their _timers_ revealed to be now run out, expired _timers._  
Only zeros.

Their star would twinkle like no other in the sky did while the surrounding people, be it staff, patients or visitors, they all would experience goosebumps all over their body due to the golden dust cloud which came out of nowhere.

The two soumates were smiling happily when they realised what had just happened.

And yet again, the doors shut in Levi's face. His head was empty, he tumbled back to the wall he had stood at before.  
Grey eyes observed the reflection in the elevator's mirrors.

What did he expect to happen?

The remaining passengers hopped of when they arrived on the next floor and that was when Levi slid down to the dirty tiles.

All alone, he was all alone.  
He lost what had never been destined to be his.  
For as long as the couple had been together, he had wasted precious time.

On the 2nd floor, a wedded pair set foot in the elevator only to stare and to ignore because Levi was nothing more but a picture of misery nobody wanted to inspect further.  
After all, he was wearing a rather dirty-washed yellow sweater with sunflowers, pyjama pants that were way too big and worn out for the public and loosely tied sneakers.

Numb to pain that was sinking into his head, into his heart while shrinking like a salted slug.

Eren's heart was beating strongly when his soulmate grabbed his hand lovingly.  
Not because her skin was soft and neat, but because it was _ _her_ _ hand.  
Since that moment he wasn't able to picture a life without her, his true love, by his side.

Carla was laying in her bed, exhausted and half-drunken; she was destroyed, she had only just escaped death.  
Grisha held her cold hand while Mikasa sat by her mother's side.

»What... What happened?«, the woman asked confused, unable to remember any reason for her stay in the hospital.

»My angel, you were involved in a car accident«, her husband explained with a mellow voice and a soft glance. »The police is still searching for the truck's driver. He fled.«

Carla stared at her family's father, into loving eyes. »He's lucky. If I had caught him, I would have flayed him alive«, she joked and kept her humour with her all the time, even in a situation like this.

But the laughter died out when Eren entered the room alongside a young nurse who held his hand.  
That was when the Jaegers realised what actually happened.

It wasn't Carla who departed their life, it was Levi Ackerman.

The woman from the entrance came up to the elevator after being informed that a weird _defect_   in pyjamas was squatting in a corner inside the lift.  
»Hey, uhm, do you want to come out, please?«, she asked awkwardly and overwhelmed.

Levi was on the run, just wanted to be as far away as possible, so he nodded and stood up with knees made of wobbly jelly.  
»I gotta go home...«

The raven-haired felt guilty because he didn't stand by his boyfriend- no, his ex-lover he loved so much, because he didn't experienced Carla's last minutes - he didn't know that she wasn't _that_ severely hurt -, because the only thing he did was flee.  
But it didn't matter anymore, he wasn't welcome anyway.

He was replaced and the romance between Eren and him was nothing in comarison to the destined love of soulmates.

Levi hopped onto a night bus and disappeared from Eren's life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments make authors really happy!
> 
> PS: sorry for mistakes if there are any


	7. After Ending

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! I'm sorry for I have taken so long to finish this one.

 

Roses melted.  
          Cold blossoms.

 

-x-

 

The window covered with ice gave a blurred vision of the city in the distance, but even so the skyline looked more than beautiful.  
It was a washed-out medley of colorful colours and Levi was finding himself starring at it instead of concentrating on the manuscript he had to read.

The story wasn't that different to the others anyway; the story was a love story.

After finishing university with a master'S degree in Linguistics, English and German studies he had looked for a job and had found himself at a book-publishing business. It was his duty to read, evaluate and - if they were good enough for the eyes of the world - translate almost-books into German.

It was a relaxed job, it paid the bills. Levi loved to read and to talk in different languages; that's why he also attended a course in Italian, as well as Russian, Spanish and French.  
Another advantage was the ability, or rather possibility, to work from home.   
No need to see faces he didn't like.

Additionally, he was the owner of a cat which kept him company.   
She was a beauty- fur as white as snow, but ears, paws and tail in a  soft orange tone. The lovely name was »Mucki« and she even responded to it, although she probably didn't understand that it was her name.

A navy blue, woollen sweater warmed Levi's body while he still gazed through the frozen over glass, sitting on the extremely large and quite comfortable window bench.   
He wrote a book himself, but he wasn't able to continue its story as he had already reached the present.  
Although he had planned everything, even the smallest detail, his brain couldn't think of any suitable ending.

The problem was that bad endings  weren't exactly an ending at all.   
Bad endings would always find something to continue themselves in.   
A happy ending presented itself with the start of something, like a wedding, a kiss, the solution to a problem, the start of a relationship or friendship, etc.  
But his ending was different.  
His story wasn't expecting any 'Happy End', so he had to prepare himself for the opposite.

Mucki made herself comfortable on Levi's feet while warming them with her hot and squishy kitty belly.  
The pale fingers ruffled the cat's fur behind its hearing organs which caused fulfilled, happy and almost silent purring.  
»You have a good life, hm? Sleeping the whole day, being petted and loved, not having to clean anything... not caring about anything in the world.«  
As if the fluffy creature wanted to agree it mewed and slightly stretched under Levi's touch.   
»Maybe it's true that a satisfied fool is luckier than a unfortunate Socrates.«

Levi glimpsed at the watch on his wrist when he heard a thunder. »Pretty thundery since a few weeks...«   
Mucki snuggled up against her owner's stomach since she felt secure when she huddled against him.  
»I'll buy a nice, soft blanket for you tomorrow, baby. So you won't catch a cold when the heater doesn't do its job next time.«

Finally, the black-haired man stood up, carrying the cat in his arms as well as the manuscript which he placed on the kitchen's counter. He then made his way into the bedroom, changed while his furred friend watched him and escaped into the lands of dreams when he laid down in his bed, listening to Mucki's soft purring.

 

-x-

 

He knew something was off as soon as he entered the tiny supermarket.  
It was almost empty, no customers were in sight, and Africa by Toto was to be heard in the halls.

Nevertheless, Levi looked up what he wrote on his grocery list.  
»Milk, eggs, cat food, mangos, HoneyBalls and... what the fuck is that... shower gel?« He couldn't made out what he wrote as he had written this list in the dark when he couldn't sleep.

The shopping trolley rolled in front of him as he collected the items he needed until he had everything except for one: HoneyBalls. He hated that part of shopping.   
Because when Levi arrived where the cereals were stored, he was reminded of how short- no, › _un-tall_ ‹ to quote him- he was.

The HoneyBalls were mocking him from the top shelf.   
Just 5cm and Levi could reach them. They were so close yet so far away.  
»Fucking shit. Every god damn time«, he swore already standing on the tip of his toes.  
For a moment he thought he had to climb the shelves again, just like he always did when nobody looked.

But that wasn't necessary.

Levi stopped believing in fate two centuries ago, yet it was happening to him like a chaste malheur.

Behind him, right there, he felt a presence that felt so intimate; a presence, unmistakable.

The scent of aftershave and baby powder filled Levi's nose.   
Long, scrawny fingers hugged by sun-kissed skin grasped one of the yellow cartons filled with cereals, lifted it up and made it disappear, somewhere else, nowhere in Levi's sight.

»You eat HoneyBalls, too?«

The goosebumps on Levi's skin had never been this intense.

»Everyone says that HoneyLoopsies are better, but honestly they are rather Honey _Whoopsies_.«

The long fingers wrapped themselves around a side of another one of the boxes, paused there.  
A golden band adorned the fourth finger.   
Green eyes searched for the date of expiry and when they found and analysed it, the hand put it back to grab a box of HoneyBalls with a later best-before date.

The man behind him placed the box in Levi's cart before he noticed that he still had not turned around to face him. »Levi?«, he asked and wrapped his hands around the other's upper arms, making the black-haired man seemingly fall back into reality.

»Eren?«

His husky voice sounded moved, as if he had to smother so many bottled-up emotions.  
And then Levi finally stared into these green emeralds; however they weren't the ones he remembered.   
Instead of being clear, they showed a dark sky full of stars with one white sparkling dot under the faint reflection of Levi's face.

»It's been 84 years since I saw you the last time!« Eren wore his now longer hair in a messy, yet stylish man bun. In general he looked more mature, his face was more defined and masculine.

In contrast, Levi showed his first wrinkles between his eyebrows when he tried to concentrate on something.  
He was pushing 30, in December the time would have come.   
He would officially be ›old‹.  
Eren would only just become 28 years old the following year.

Since Levi appeared to be very surprised as well as not so surprised, Eren frowned, but didn't want to end the conversation so soon. »Do you live in the city?«  
The answer was a nod.  
»Oh, what a coincidence! Usually I don't go grocery shopping here because my family and I moved to the suburbs.«

_›Family‹_

»Your parents and siblings live under your roof?«, Levi suddenly asked, almost cutting Eren off.  
»What? Oh, hell, no! Our house isn't that big«, the brunet man laughed nervously and examined his then-boyfriend for a long time. »I spoke of my wife and my child. Haven't you seen that on FootPrintz?«

Levi kicked himself. How could he fool himself into thinking that Eren was different.   
That Eren would suddenly fall out of love.  
That Eren had loved him in all seriousness, even more than his soulmate.

»FootPrince? What are you talking about? That sounds... kinky.«  
»Foot _Printz_. Like several footprints. Just with a Z. Anyway, it's a social media platform. You can share anything you accomplished in life. And with that, you leave your footprint in this world as well as in the web.« The green eyes were soft although Eren's arms were crossed. »And, well, heh, there was only one Levi Ackerman signed up, so I added him as a friend. I thought that must be you. Turns out I was right to doubt it was you. That guy only posted pictures of ducks and chickens. But, oh well, he never saw my posts anyway.«

Levi still stood still in front of Eren, he couldn't resist not moving. He had a certain aura, yet it wasn't the same he got to know several years earlier.

»I'll be heading out«, he informed with a dark voice, shoving the big figure in front of him aside and did a runner towards the check stand.  
Levi's heart was racing in his chest, the products all looked the same when they were blurry.   
He didn't even cared that one of the eggs had probably been destroyed in the process of placing the items carelessly and hurriedly onto the black, rolling band.

»14,38«, the cashier smacked while chewing on a grey bubble gum and tapping boredly onto the check-out's metal with her long, sharp, red fingernails.  
Without putting any thought into his action, he laid down a bank note, collected his purchases and left the store, not glancing back at the cashier still holding the change.  
The cart was rolled back to the others by him, after he forget to leave it there.

Dark. Grey. Blue. The city's high buildings scratched the clouds and made them cry.

Due to accrued stress, Levi lit a cigarette.   
He had begun to smoke again and couldn't stop anymore; his body required the nicotine to function correctly.

The small fire let Levi's pale face light up in a soft orange for a few seconds before it left him in the dark again.  
Bluish-gray smoke made its way up to the sky only to vanish as fast as it was produced.

»It's okay, Levi. Everything is fine«, he talked to himself. »You go home, care for your kitty and then go to bed.«  
Rummaging his pants and jacket's pockets for his key chain, he thought about cooking dinner because his stomach made a protesting noise after hearing that there would be no food for it.

When he realized that his keys weren't on him, the image of them laying on the kitchen's counter flashed before Levi's eyes and he mentally kicked his own ass. »Fuck.«  
Spare keys were owned by his uncle, his mother and Farlan as well as Isabel, so there wasn't any under his entrance carpet or under the potted daises next to the apartment's door, but what was worse was the fact that they all lived about 30 minutes away.  
30 minutes if you went by car.  
Additionally, he had left his mobile at home. After all, he only went to the supermarket.

»For fuck's sake... Just perfect«, Levi growled and ran his fingers through his hair, puffing out grey smoke.

Luck definitely wasn't on his side.  
A bus rolled past the raven-haired man, right through a puddle of dirty water, and drenched him fully as a wall of rain hugged his body.

Internally Levi counted to ten, removed the soaked cigarette from his lips and dropped it grossed out. Finally, he shook due to disgust.

»Oh my god, that looked _ridiculously fantastic_!«, a warm laughter ringed out and it really was Eren who suddenly stood there next to him under the roofed over bus stop - which only spend little protection against the rain - and held two full paper bags in his hands.

Levi's eyes grew slim and veins were visibly pulsating on his forehead for a second. »Ha-ha«, he mimicked a dead laugh before wiping wet strands away from his field of view.

Eren handed him a tissue and observed Levi thanking him while drying the puddle off his face. »Hey, uhm, do you need to walk for a long time?«, he asked and examined his surroundings. »I'd like to chat for a bit. You know, catching up. We haven't seen each other for so long, Levi.«

The way Eren pronounced the name and let it fall from his lips, made Levi feel weak in the knees, as if they were replaced by wobbly jelly.   
»I forgot my keys at home. So I need to call someone with a spare key... but my phone is also at home. Phone booths are a thing of the past.«

»Oh.« The brunet man glanced at his wrist which was graced by an expensive looking watch. »It's already late... You can come home with me. A warm parlor is waiting for you. It would be careless of me to let you catch the flu.«  
Levi wanted to interrupt the invitation, but the mental image awakened curiosity.   
»Of course you could shower and wear dry clothes. And I should be able to find some black tea bags somewhere in the cupboards.«   
Eren had no need to talk like that as he was sure he had black tea at home. He always had black tea on hand.  
Just in case.

For a few seconds, Levi's lips were sealed. His ears listened the sounds of the rain drops meeting a solid or liquid surface, the motors working in all the vehicles passing them, the heart beating a fast rhythm in his chest.  
The puddles shined brightly coloured due the reflection of neon or electric sign, making even the black road convey comfort during the saddest weathers of them all.

»Fine«, Levi answered and stared into the emerald green.

Eren grinned like a Cheshire cat. »So run. I don't have an umbrella on me and my car is a few streets far away.« And just like that, he raced off into the clouds' tears and seemed to be as amused as a child playing in the rain, making Levi's heart melt.

He was dripping wet anyway and his limbs were already trembling from the cold. So there was nothing left to lose.

Running through the cool wetness, he followed Eren and soon caught up to him.  
Together they were dashing under rainy clouds, just as it used to be.

 

-x-

 

  
Eren's house was just like any other.  
There was a front door, a roof and walls.  
Not only that, but it also was painted white, the roof's bricks were dark grey and bluish, the window frames of dull silver and the entry door's wood was coloured light blue.  
Black, grey and white pebbles.  
With blankets covered palm trees due to the time of the year.  
Single trees in the backyard.  
Black and white cars everywhere.

The whole neighbourhood was a reflection of itself; monotonous, alike, normal.  
Levi was an outsider, an alien that didn't belong there.  
He was different and the entire street couldn't not notice that.

_›He's a defect.‹_

Inside the Jaeger's house it was cozy, the underfloor heating warmed Levi's bottom of the feet after slipping of his wet sneakers in the entrance hall.

Eren studied Levi's movements, his facial features and the way he sighted the new environment before finally taking off his own leather jacket and hanging it onto a coat hook.   
He was handed Levi's jacket as well, walked with him through the hallway to a French door leading to the living room.

The brown wooden floor, the dark grey, hopefully faux fur carpet and the light gray sofas and armchair;   
the fireplace made of natural stone, the white wainscot and the huge television.   
Eren must earn a whole lot of money and Levi suddenly felt poorer than he actually was.

»The bathroom is upstairs, first door on the left. I'll give you fresh clothing«, Eren explained the way when he knelt down by the chimney and started a fire in it.

With a suddenly shy nod the raven-haired man disappeared and the stairs were quiet, didn't creak at all when he stepped on them.

Arriving in the first floor, he entered the bathroom which was kept in surprisingly well harmonising white and purpure shades.  
The sanitary installations were made of white porcelain while the floor was a chessboard of dull, red and white tiles.   
And every towel was red and fluffy.

Eren hung Levi's soaked clothes in front of the hot flames, inspected them and then made his way upstairs.  
There he entered the bedroom, the first door on the right.

A huge marital bed had been placed in the middle of the room, touching a wall with the headboard and standing in between two windows which began at the floor and ended at the ceiling.  
Mirrors blanketed two of the six doors, which belonged to a massive wardrobe that seemed more like a solid wall. The entire room was in colours of light brown, dark purple, light gray to brightly white.

His clothing wouldn't fit Levi at all, as he was still as short as he had been years ago; other than Eren who had experienced a late growth spurt and finally reached the 180cm.  
Still, he looked for a suitable outfit and took out a white t-shirt, boxer shorts and socks, as well as a pair of black sweatpants.

Protected by the milky shower curtain, Eren was able to detect only Levi's outlines while he showered, yet he found himself starring at the short, greyish shadow.

»Your clothing delivery boy visited you. You have been blessed to receive a comfortable outfit.« The pieces were laid down onto the toilet seat lid.

»Thank you.«

When the door lock's click finally ringed in Levi's ears, he breathed heavily.

He felt like an idiot for still missing Eren in his arms at night.   
Although it had not even been three full years, it had been the best, most alive time Levi had ever lived.   
The rest seemed as grey as his bedroom in the morning when Mucki opened the door by jumping up and pushing the door handle down, invited herself into the room and made light fall into the darkness.   
After all, all cats are grey by night, and with that only the red numbers from his digital clock were coloured when he woke up.

The wet tiles contrasted with Levi's relatively hot body temperature, causing him to shiver entirely.  
The shampoo scented like Eren, just as the shower gel. And now he smelled the same.

 

-x-

 

They were sitting by the fireplace watching the flame's play when Eren's arm had laid itself around Levi's silhouette.

They were feeling like teenagers all over again, like callow almost-adults.

»It was weird when you suddenly weren't by my side during the graduation ceremony and prom night. Somehow I had always thought you'd be my prom king«, Eren told without any reason. »I mean, of course, Hatice was with me and we danced and I have loved her already. However you were my first love and without you I wouldn't be me, right? And I really wasn't myself. I was so imperfect, so _defective_ \- and Hatice completed me naturally.«   
He realized there was no sense in whatever he just said when one of Levi's eyebrows lifted itself.   
»It's like you are a different puzzle's missing piece and still fit into my puzzle. I was completed, yet actually something was in fact not...«

»Right?«, Levi guessed after giving Eren enough time to find the last word of his sentence.

»You were right. But you know how the world works. Soulmates. Timer. Stars.«

»I would have never been the right man for you. I was always the prince you weren't allowed to love because you were already promised to marry a crown princess.« Levi let his head rest on Eren's shoulder and felt the quietest heartbeat with his ear.

Again, the room was silent except for the chimney's flames.

»You made me think, Levi. You really did.« Eren's hand moved carefully over Levi's upper arm in a stroking manner before catching his chin, turning his head in his direction to finally stare directly into his eyes. »Is it truly _love_ if it's destined? Who created the rules? Which creature?«

Levi remained silent.

»Every single time I look into Hatice's eyes, I see our star twinkle. But when I look into your eyes, I stare at myself.« Long fingers stroked one of the pale cheeks and a shiver went down Eren's spine as so many yellowed memories were triggered by this simple touch. »Is that the case 'cause she has to love me whereas you love me of your own free will? There's no need to deny, Levi. Your cheeks are pulsating almost as if you still had a working timer.«

Without hesitation the Levi removed the hand from his face. »It doesn't matter anyway. You're married to your soulmate, you got a kid and everything your heart could ever request.« However, he didn't let go of that warm hand.

»It matters to me, Levi. It's as if I was  still in love with you, but not able to.« Eren pulled the raven-haired man almost fully onto himself, causing them to feel every breath of one another and making him able to see every little detail on Levi's face. »And you're still the same Levi. You grew older. More mature. Nothing else.«

»Is it really considered ›mature‹ if I cling to something fictional like a naive teen?«, Levi questioned quietly, but it wasn't an ask as he knew the answer already.

»It is mature to know that one does something stupid. After all, the youth doesn't know when they do something stupid... And maybe I want to be a juvenile all over again.«   
Ever so slowly Eren's lips reduced the distance between them and Levi's, they touched. The kiss was as innocent as guilty.

Both of them knew that nothing could ever grow from this. Yet they both didn't resist.

Everything that had already been finished once has an end. Both of them had already went past it.

Levi realised, too, which was why he turned his face away from Eren and leaned his heavy head on his shoulder instead. »You're married, Eren. This is wrong. That ship had sailed a long time ago.«

The flames crackled and it was the only noise except for the brunet man's breathing next to Levi's ear.

»I know.« A pause. »Forgive me. I'm an idiot.«

And Levi nodded. »Well, yeah, agreed. Though I expected nothing different. You wouldn't be the idiot who is so important to me, if you weren't the idiot you are. There's no need to deny.«  
Those words nearly surprised himself, because he wasn't aware of their meaning until he said his innermost thoughts out loud.

Eren's arms tangled around Levi's body, pulling it closer to himself. »You're important to me, too. I caused so much pain due to my own egoism.«  
»And I let you be selfish because I had been selfish in the first place. It's my fault. And your innocent look's fault. Never, not even in 100 years from now, really, never, I could have resisted you and your damn puppy eyes.«

Silence, again.  
Every beginning is hard.

»After my birthday, you completely broke off contact with me«, the brunet man remembered and stared at the desiring, never vanishing, passionately burning fire.   
»Your luck should have been mine, too. But I was eaten up by it eventually.« The photos of the family, the wedding and the baby were stabbed Levi's eyes and he had to think of his cat for some reason.

 

-x-

 

The hospital room was cold, while the temperature was yellow, orange and red. It seemed like one would melt soon.  
And with that everyone in the close proximity knew that the day really had arrived.

Although Eren's respiratory mask helped him breathe the last breezes and puffs of wind, he appeared very juvenile and fit; probably thanks to the soft glowing of his skin.

His hair had turned gray at some spots on his scalp; his eyes, however, were not a tiny bit faded.

The daughter's, Caeldori's, hand felt unreal.  
Just yesterday she slept on his stomach and pooped in her diapers. Now she was 20 years old and had to care for her father alongside her mother.

»Dad... How are you?«

»Good, sweetie.«

Isabel entered the room; she had wrinkles here and there already, the ravages of time had shown no mercy.   
When she spotted Eren, the weak glow, she knew that the doctors in fact were not wrong at all with their assumption.   
The day has come.

»Eren, hello there.« She approached the bed he lied in, never averting the gaze from her cousin's rising and falling chest.   
Caeldori hugged her great-aunt, not holding back her tears anymore. »I will leave you two alone for some minutes. I have t-to wait for Mom outside. She's driving Grandma and Grandpa.«

She disappeared.

»Izzy, come here«, Eren requested, tapping on the spot next to him on the bed, and she fulfilled his wish.  
After sitting down, Isabel grabbed one of his hands in her own, while the pulsating sensation grew stronger with every second.   
The roar in Eren's head must have been unbearable, she imagined.

»Are you ready to be up in the sky?«, Isabel asked him. »Ready to watch luminiferously over your beloved?«

Eren stared at her for a long time; the respiratory mask made his breathing look like hard work. »Yeah... I'm sad to leave so soon, but if it's my duty to be up there, I'll fulfil it gladly.«

A tear hit his hand. He left it there. Instead, he handed Isabel a tissue. »I'm especially sorry for you, too, Isabel, to leave you this soon... this soon after...« His voice broke off because Isabel's chest was visibly shaking as her breathing was troubled by her immense sobs.

»It was a privilege to live this beautiful life with you, Eren. You brought us joy and love, we had so much fun when we were together...« Isabel unpacked a photo album she had hidden in her bag.  
But it wasn't a photo album, it was a short film.

His childhood in the East of Germany, in Berlin to be exact.  
The adoption of Mikasa and Armin, who both lived their own lives somewhere on Earth.

Armin migrated with his soulmate to South Africa, whereas Mikasa was seemingly everywhere at the same time due to her job which required her to travel a lot. Yesterday she could have been in Japan, tomorrow she might be in America.

The Christmas Eves with his Russo-German and Turkish family.  
The move to the USA.  
Levi.

»It's a shame that Levi can't be here with me today«, Eren whispered when he saw the polaroid picture from Isabel's 17th birthday.  
Instead of answering with words, Isabel squeezed his now stronger glowing hand.

The first love.  
The first time.  
The parties and evenings with his group of friends; in the regular bar where they went to and lived out the craziest stories.

Most pictures were blurry from those nights as everyone had been intoxicated by alcohol.  
However, the memories weren't just as hazy as a washy night in the rain.

The soulmeet. Of course, there are no picture of this event as well, but there was a picture of a very French and very drunk kiss the day after.

The graduation ceremony and prom night.  
The wedding.  
Mikasas's wedding underneath cherry blossoms.  
Isabel's wedding in the garden of her parents' old house.  
Armin's wedding in Brazil.  
Caeldori's birthday.

Meeting Levi again.

The incident.  
It had been one of those evenings when Levi acted as a babysitter and watched over the then 5 years old Caeldori. They had been of one mind and Hatice has not even been the tiniest bit jealous or concerned that her husband was letting his ex-boyfriend spend so much time with their daughter; mostly because Eren had been happy to befriend Levi again.

»Isabel«, Eren said when his last needs had been satisfied. »What's the time?« The clock suddenly wasn't readable anymore.  
She sobbed again, kissed his knuckles and looked at her wrist watch. »11:58 PM.«

»It's time... Will you open the window for me?«

The red-haired woman stood up sluggishly, not wanting to let go. When Isabel reached the window, she saw the skyline.   
Due to the light pollution there was almost no star visible, except for one who shone brightly above the sea.   
Her smile was sad and full of grief.  
»It's a lonely night to go, but you have company, Eren.«  
With that, she opened the window and a breeze of fresh air surrounded Eren.

»Can you please remove the mask? I want to breathe«, the brunet man's dark voice rustled and Isabel nodded.  
Carefully she took of the mask and stroked his hair softly.

Eren's skin blazed golden, his eyes sparkled.  
He was beautiful. The sky could do nothing but grin with him as an enrichment.

»Lock the door... My family... I want to be alone with you.«

Although she asked for forgiveness as she didn't feel well by blocking family members from getting to spend his last moments with them, she locked the door without any complaint.

After that, Isabel sat down next to him again, took his hand and switched the light off. It would have been waste of electricity as Eren shone brightly enough for the entire room.

»Send him my love, Eren. We will miss you.«

When the clock stroke midnight, Eren's eyes closed.  
The energy inside of him concentrated, dissolved his body and left behind a twinkling, glittering cloud of stellar dust.  
There, where Isabel had felt Eren's warmth on her hand before, her skin tingled.

The cloud wandered slowly to the open window and vanished out of the room. Isabel followed with her eyes as the sparkling strolled upwards.

It moved closer to a certain, bright star until one could only perceive a little glow.  
And then, there was a white dot, next to the other one.

Isabel leaned on the windowsill and suddenly smiled; happy for her cousin. »This close together...« She took out her binoculars.

But what she saw was something nobody had ever seen before either.

The two stars moved closer to each other, attracting one another.

And they became one.

Suddenly there was an explosion in the sky, far from earth, but it could still be noticed or rather felt.

Isabel was barely able to see the sky, or at least barely able to understand what she saw in the sky because it seemed like an hallucination.

Before, there had been two relatively weakly shining stars, but now there was only one; and it was the brightest of them all. Almost even brighter than the full moon.

»What did just happen?«  
  
  
  
  
  
  


 

 

 

 

»Fuck yes! It really did happen! I knew it! The day came!«

»What? Doc, what are you talking about?«

»Somebody died! Their soul went straight into the sky, a new star was created. Normal, nothing new, pretty lame. However it melted together with another star that was right next to it! They are one star now! And they- no, it illuminates the entire night sky!«

»How is that possible? That is amazing, Doc!«

»I don't know how it is possible, but I will find it out. It's impossible for it to be possible.«

»Maybe it's true what the old books say... Maybe love really knows no limits and can make the most impossible thing possible.«  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


 

 

 

 

 

 

_»Levi? Is that you?«_

The star sparkled brightly.

_»Yes. Take my hand.«_

The star glittered colourfully.

_»Why?«_

_»Let's watch over our loved ones.«_

The star shone more brightly.

_»Gladly, if you dance with me in heaven's tent.«_

  
  


 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It seems like this really is the last chapter and honestly I'm as relieved as sad that it's over.   
> Writing this was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it.
> 
> I hope you all like it and thank you for reading!! <3
> 
>  
> 
> For announcements regarding my writing you can follow my instagram and/or my tumblr (both pandatowrites bc i am uncreative lol)


End file.
